Page 13 - AsianOil Week 15 2022

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Shell resumes LNG shipments

from Australia’s Prelude FLNG

PROJECTS & SHELL said in a brief statement on April 11 that NOPSEMA’s satisfaction that the facility can
COMPANIES it had resumed shipping cargoes from its Prelude safely recover essential power and associated
floating LNG (FLNG) facility offshore the north essential services following a loss of power, and
coast of Western Australia. that the safety systems and essential support sys-
The facility had been offline for four tems operate to maintain safety of personnel,”
months following a major power failure. A Shell stated this week.
Shell spokesperson confirmed to Reuters The outage is the latest in a series of mis-
Prelude is the largest that a cargo had been loaded, leaving the ter- haps for Prelude, which is the world’s largest
FLNG project in the minal on April 10, but did not disclose the FLNG vessel and demonstrates the complexity
world. destination. involved in operating such offshore megapro-
Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum jects. The facility was previously offline for most
Safety and Environmental Management Author- of 2020 owing to electrical problems, having only
ity (NOPSEMA), the offshore security regulator, entered service in 2019 after delays to its initial
authorised the resumption of shipments from start-up date.
Prelude last month. This came after NOPSEMA Shell operates Prelude with a 67.5% inter-
had ordered in December 2021 that the facility est. Asian companies own the remainder of the
remain offline until Shell had demonstrated that project – Japan’s Inpex holds a 17.5% stake, Tai-
it had made certain required safety improve- wan’s CPC owns 5% and Korea Gas (KOGAS)
ments. The super-major has now met the regula- holds the remaining 10%. The facility has a
tor’s requirements. production capacity of 5.3mn tonnes per year
“Shell notes the announcement from NOP- of liquids, including 3.6mn tpy of LNG, 1.3mn
SEMA confirming Direction 1860 has been tpy of condensate and 400,000 tpy of liquefied
closed following Shell’s demonstration to petroleum gas (LPG).™

NEWS IN BRIEF

SOUTH ASIA Reuters reminds that on April 12 the US Schlumberger of hydraulic fracturing services,
President Joe Biden during an online meeting coiled tubing and nitrogen services and
US said to dissuade India with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi perforation services for the planned re-frack
urged him not to increase purchases of oil
of the Cambay C-77H well in July 2022.
from buying Russian oil from Russia. re-frack costs caused by a global shortage
Due to the higher than anticipated C-77H
In 2021, oil from Russia accounted for 2%
Indian Oil Corporation has excluded Russian of India’s overall purchases from overseas, or of fracking services and equipment, and the
oil blend Urals from its upcoming purchasing about 33mn barrels. Previous reports claimed delayed start up of gas production on the
tender, Reuters reported on April 13 citing that Indian Mangalore Refinery, Bharat Cambay field, Oilex plans to raise additional
unnamed trading sources. Petroleum and Petrochemicals had also funds over the next approximate month.
Indian oil refineries have started buying considered buying discounted Urals blend oil. In addition, Oilex have negotiated a revised
heavily discounted Urals blend oil, as gas sales agreement with Enertech Fuel
sanctions for the military invasion of Ukraine Solutions for the sale of gas from the Cambay
have had Western buyers shunning Russian Cambay India C-77H re- field. The revised agreement is based on the
crude. India is also looking to increase its recently announced government of India
imports of coking coal from Russia. frack update and revised domestic gas price of $6.1 per mmBtu plus
Previous reports claimed that Russian state an additional 20% premium. The revised gas
development bank VEB.RF and the Reserve gas sales contract price is now $7.32 per mmBtu compared to
Bank of India have even set up a direct the previous gas price of c. $4.2 per mmBtu.
payment channel as an alternative to SWIFT Oilex is pleased to provide the following Oilex’s chief executive officer, Roland
to settle commodity deliveries. update to its operations in India and in Wessel, said: “Following a competitive
Reportedly, Indian state buyers cited high particular, with respect to the Cambay field. tendering process, the company has selected
sulphur content as the official reasoning for Oilex and Schlumberger Asia Services have Schlumberger to provide the bulk of the
excluding Urals from the tender. However, executed a letter of intent for the supply by services required for the upcoming C-77H

Week 15 15•April•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P13