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up 9% to around $53bn.
Gazprom’s European gas business performed
particularly poorly, with prices down 38% and
sales volumes down 16.7%. COVID-19 and its
impact on demand was the main factor here, but
high levels of gas in storage, a warm winter and a
pre-pandemic glut in global LNG supply did not
help matters. Its sales in Russia offered compar-
ative stability.
The worst is now over for Gazprom, with
its European sales continuing their recovery
and prices slowly but surely rising. But it will be
struggling with the fallout from this steep fall in
earnings for some time.
Rosneft is understood to be unhappy with a
tax mechanism introduced last year that penal-
ises companies for charging too much for vehicle
fuel in Russia.
The so-called damper mechanism means
companies pay more in tax when domestic fuel
prices are higher than export price. But when in seven months from the Elba Island LNG Cheniere Energy’s
Russian prices are lower, they receive a subsidy. terminal. Sabine Pass LNG
The pandemic caused European fuel prices to The Maran Gas Hector LNG tanker arrived facility.
collapse, but Russian prices were relatively stable. at the facility last week, in a boost to Kinder
As such, suppliers suffered some $3.2bn in losses Morgan after a lull in exports from Elba Island
from the pandemic as a result of the damper. amid a downturn in demand. The company also
Rosneft is now seeking amendments – hope- brought its tenth – and final – small-scale lique-
fully ones that allow it to claw back some of its faction train online at the terminal last week.
losses. But the Finance Ministry is likely to block With Elba Island fully online, the first wave
such a move, or simply compensate for any of US LNG export capacity construction is now
changes by introducing an additional tax on the complete. A second wave is under way, also pri-
industry elsewhere. marily on the Gulf Coast. Indeed, the two pro-
jects under construction currently – Venture
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG and ExxonMobil
the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please and Qatar Petroleum’s (QP) Golden Pass LNG
click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor. both had to provide updates in the wake of Hur-
ricane Laura passing through the area. Neither
US LNG bounces back site is reported to have been significantly affected
US LNG operations that were disrupted by Hur- by the storm.
ricane Laura were resuming this week, amid a
broader recovery from the slowdown over the Latin America: Investors play up potential
summer, when numerous cargoes scheduled for Investors in several South American countries
loading from US terminals were cancelled. (See: are eager to push ahead with new projects.
US LNG exports bouncing back after Hurricane In Guyana, ExxonMobil is pressing the
Laura disruptions, page 14) administration of Irfaan Ali, the country’s new
On August 31 it was reported that Cheniere president, to give a green light to plans for the
Energy, the leading US LNG exporter, was development of another section of the Stabroek
restarting its Sabine Pass liquefaction terminal in block. The government had said previously that
Louisiana, which had been shut down in prepa- it expected to finish a review of the US super-ma-
ration for the hurricane making landfall in the jor’s field development plan (FDP) for the Payara
area. The facility is reported not to have suffered project in time to approve it before the end of
any significant damage. August. Last week, though, Natural Resources
On the same day, Sempra Energy said it had Minister Vikram Bharrat said the deadline was
been able to conduct preliminary visual inspec- being pushed back by a few days.
tions of the nearby Cameron LNG terminal. In Brazil, plans for leasing out the Bahia LNG
These initial assessments indicated that the terminal have drawn strong interest from Golar
facility had sustained “minimal flooding and no LNG. The head of the Bermuda-based com-
catastrophic wind damage”, Sempra said. pany, which has already been authorised by the
No date for a restart of Cameron LNG has been national oil company (NOC) Petrobras to partic-
provided, though the company said full operations ipate in the bidding contest for the lease, stated
would be restored “as soon as safely practicable”. last week that his company was eager to work
Despite the disruptions caused by Hurricane in Brazil as the country’s natural gas industry
Laura, US LNG exports are gathering steam after opened up to outside investors.
a significant slowdown over the summer. In a In Colombia, the head of a local industry
different part of the US – in Georgia – Kinder group has said that the country’s hydrocarbon
Morgan was reported to be loading its first cargo sector may be able to attract hundreds of millions

Week 35 04•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P7