Page 8 - AsianOil Week 38

AsianOil SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil

Petronas cuts staff in Myanmar

PROJECTS & MALAYSIA’S state-owned Petronas has
COMPANIES reportedly been reducing the size of its team at
the Yetagun offshore natural gas field in Myan-
mar as it prepares for its eventual shutdown in
a few years.
The major has been downsizing its team since
the start of September, The Myanmar Times
reported on September 23, citing an unnamed
company employee. Further staff cuts are
planned for December and March 2021.
Yetagun’s production has fallen from a peak
of nearly 300mn cubic feet (8.5mn cubic metres)
per day of gas to just 60 mmcf (1.7 mcm) per day.
The government expects the field’s production
to remain at this level until 2023, when it is pre-
dicted to run dry, the paper quoted Myanmar
Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) director U
Kyaw Nyan Tun as saying. It is at this point that to lean on imports of the fuel in the form of liq-
the state will assume control of the field and its uefied natural gas (LNG).
infrastructure and decide whether to decommis- Petronas made its first delivery of LNG to
sion the project. the country earlier this year, with Petronas LNG
Petronas owns 40.9% of the project, while (PLL) successfully sending two LNG cargoes to
MOGE has 20.5% and Thailand’s PTTEP Inter- Yangon in May and June.
national and Japan’s Nippon Oil Exploration The deliveries were part of a sales and pur-
(Myanmar) each own 19.3%. chase agreement (SPA) PLL signed with CNTIC
The project produced 44.98bn cubic feet VPower in early 2020. The LNG was sold on a
(1.27bn cubic metres) in financial year 2018- free-on-board (FOB) basis.
2019, with production anticipated to fall to 32.82 “With Myanmar as the latest nation to adopt
bcf (929.46 mcm) in 2019-2020. LNG as a form of cleaner energy, Petronas looks
While MOGE may decide to decommission forward to being a long-term partner and sup-
the field, it may also look into enhanced produc- plier,” PLL CEO Abdul Aziz Othman said at the
tion options, given that the country is beginning time.™

EAST ASIA

Japan’s LNG imports shrink 4.1% in August

PERFORMANCE WHILE Japan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) amounted to 48.2mn tonnes, around JPY2.3
imports shrank by 4.1% year on year in August trillion ($22.01bn). While industrial gas demand
to 5.84mn tonnes, cheaper supplies of the fuel remains subdued in the wake of the coronavi-
prevented a steeper decline. The country paid rus (COVID-19) pandemic, demand from the
JPY190.9bn ($1.83bn) for its LNG deliveries last power sector picked up as the economics of LNG
month, which was 44% less than in August 2019. over coal-fired generation improved. Japanese
August volumes were also down 3.3% thermal coal shipments contracted by 12% y/y
from the 6.04mn tonnes imported in July. in August to 7.9mn tonnes, according to provi-
Deliveries in the first eight months of the year sional Finance Ministry data. The uptick in last

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 38 24•September•2020