Page 9 - GLNG Week 46

GLNG AUSTRALASIA GLNG
PNG set to start P’nyang renegotiations with ExxonMobil
POLICY
THE government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is set to start talks with ExxonMobil in an attempt to negotiate better terms for the P’nyang gas pro- ject. PNG Minister for Petroleum Kerenga Kua said an agreement could be expected by the end of November if the talks are successful.
The P’nyang gas project, located in the West- ernHighlands,willsupportathree-trainexpan- sion of ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG terminal at Caution Bay near Port Moresby. One train would use natural gas from the P’nyang and PNG LNG fields as feedstock, while two trains would use gas associated with the Papua LNG project.
The renegotiation comes as the new PNG government attempts to secure more favourable terms from developers of mineral and petroleum resources operating in the country, in a bid to alleviate poverty.
A separate LNG agreement with France’s Total for the Papua LNG project – in which Exx- onMobil is also involved – was renegotiated in September. The French company only had to make minor concessions in order to secure the new deal, but Kua said at the time that the PNG
government would press ExxonMobil Corp for “far better” terms on the P’nyang gas project.
“We look forward to working with the gov- ernment of PNG to progress the required gas agreement for the P’nyang project ahead of potential decisions on FEED [front-end engi- neering and design] for the three-train develop- mentattheexistingLNGplantsite,”ExxonMobil said in a statement that was reported by Reuters.
Last month, Kua stated that the development of the P’nyang gas field, along with a third LNG train at the PNG LNG terminal, would be treated as an integrated stand-alone gas project under the terms of an agreement that would be separate from the deals governing the initial PNG LNG and the new Papua LNG projects.
Kua has previously said that PNG’s govern- ment has the option of deferring the P’nyang project until proposed new oil and gas legisla- tion and a revised fiscal regime are introduced in 2020. However, he added that it was more beneficial to have the P’nyang agreement nego- tiated and signed under the existing Oil and Gas Act 1998.™
EUROPE
Poland notifies Gazprom of plan to end gas supply deal after 2022
POLICY
Poland wants to rely
on LNG imports and gas deliveries via a new pipeline from Norway it is developing instead of on Russian gas.
POLAND’S main gas company PGNiG said on November 15 it had notified Russia’s Gazprom that it did not intend to extend their long-term deal on gas supplies when it expires at the end of 2022.
Poland has said before it wants to stop buy- ing gas from Gazprom on a contractual basis after 2022, relying instead on LNG imports and gas deliveries via a new pipeline from Norway it is developing. But its agreement signed with Gazprom in 1996, known as the Yamal contract, requires that the pair formally submit declara- tions regarding future co-operation three years before the deal terminates.
“Over the past four years we have taken a number of important steps to diversify the sources of natural gas supply to Poland,” PGNiG president Piotr Wozniak said in a statement. “We have concluded long-term LNG supply contracts and have been acquiring natural gas deposits on the Norwegian Continental Shelf [NCS], which, combined with the activities of the transmission
system operator to expand the gas pipeline sys- tem, makes it possible for us to terminal the Yamal contract on the originally set date.”
Poland opened its first LNG import terminal, a 5bn cubic metre per year facility in Swinoujs- cie, in late 2015. The terminal has seen record use this year, partly because of low international LNG prices, taking ashore 2.48 bcm of gas in Jan- uary to September, up 27% year on year. These supplies covered 23% of Polish demand over the period, versus 18% a year earlier.
In contrast, Russian imports fell 21% in the first nine months of this year, totalling 6.29 bcm. They met 58% of Polish consumption, compared with 75% in the same period a year earlier.
Plans are underway to expand the Swinoujs- cie plant’s capacity to 7.5 bcm per year by 2021 as well as construct another 4 bcm per year import terminal in Gdansk. Poland’s Baltic Pipe project should also be up and running by 2022, carrying up to 10 bcm per year of gas from PGNiG’s fields off Norway to Poland via Denmark.™
Week 46 21•November•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9