Page 10 - AsianOil Week 09

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SOUTHEAST ASIA AsianOil
carried out between January 15 and March 31, 2021. Uzma said both contracts would posi- tively affect its earnings for the financial year ending June 30.
The new contracts support Uzma’s growing confidence in the Malaysian oil and gas service market. In February, the company announced that it was investing MYR52.8mn to increase its stake in oil and gas support services pro- vider Setegap Ventures Petroleum (SVP) from 64% to 86%.
Uzma said at the time that SVP had an order book of MYR700mn ($166.1mn) for the next five years, which included contracts for coiled tubing services, well pumping services and integrated well
services. Uzma hailed SVP’s ability to weather the service sector’s downturn following the 2014 oil price crash.
“For financial year 2015 and financial year 2016, SVP managed to record [net profit] of MYR12.8mn [$3mn] and MYR5mn [$1.2] respectively,” Uzma said. “Despite the down- turn in the local oil and gas sector, SVP actually expanded its operations. This is evident from the doubling of its workforce from 166 as at end- 2015 to 317 as at end-2018.”
The company said SVP’s immediate pros- pects were positive, given that Petronas’ Activity Outlook 2020-2022 pointed to a steady stream of drilling work.™
EAST ASIA
Chinese gas demand growth slows in January
PERFORMANCE
CHINA’S apparent consumption of natural gas climbed by 3.4% year on year in January to 29.65bn cubic metres, the National Devel- opment and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on February 28.
Production of the fuel expanded by 8.4% y/y to 16.66 bcm, while imports of both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and piped gas shrank by 1.6% y/y to 13.35 bcm.
The decline in imports was driven by LNG buyers either declaring force majeure in their contracts or deferring deliveries in response to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the country’s largest LNG importer, was reported in early February to have declared force majeure on prompt deliveries from at least three suppliers. PetroChina, meanwhile, was reportedly forced to delay discharge timings for multiple cargoes because it could not send enough workers to its Rudong, Dalian and Caofeidian LNG terminals to run them at full capacity.
Importers are anticipated to cut their imports of the super-chilled fuel in favour of pipeline imports owing to the latter’s price advantage.
Indeed, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) announced on
March 2 that it had ramped up imports of Russian gas via the Power of Siberia pipeline since the duct opened on December 2, 2019. The state major said the 3,000-km pipeline had pumped 840mn cubic metres of gas between its start-up and February 25.
The pipeline is expected to deliver 4.6 bcm this year, before ramping up to its full capacity of 38 bcm per year in 2025.
China’s demand for natural gas is widely predicted to slow this year, owing to far-reaching government efforts to slow the spread of the virus.
China’s infection rate appears to be slow- ing, with the government reporting 125 new confirmed infections and 31 deaths in the preceding 24 hours on March 3. The figure for new infections is the lowest since January 20. Achieving that reduction has required cen- tral and local governments to impose travel restrictions and municipal lockdowns.
More than 50mn people are reportedly still in quarantine in the central prov- ince of Hubei, ground zero for the virus. Schools are still closed and factories are expected to remain operating below full capacity until April.
The Shanghai and Beijing municipal gov- ernments, along with authorities in Guang- dong Province, announced this week that travellers arriving from countries struggling with a COVID-19 outbreak would be quar- antined for 14 days. Guangdong Province has announced similar measures.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 09 04•March•2020