Page 17 - GLNG Week 45
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GLNG AUSTRAL ASIA GLNG
Sino-Australian spat sinks LNG stake sale
INVESTMENT DETERIORATING bilateral relations between they were just not able to proceed at this point
China and Australia have forced Woodside due to the relations between China and Aus-
Petroleum to shelve plans temporarily to sell a tralia,” Coleman said. “So, we’re a little frustrated
stake in an LNG project and associated gas field and disappointed by that. But we’re hopeful that
to Chinese investors. things will improve and we’ll be able to get them
Woodside CEO Peter Coleman told Reuters back to the table.”
on November 12 that the diplomatic rowed had Coleman said the frayed relations had not
forced the company to walk away from talks to hurt the company’s existing partnerships with
sell a “modest” stake in the Pluto LNG Train 2 Chinese companies in Australia and Myanmar,
project and Scarborough field to PetroChina which he described as “very good”.
and some other investors several months ago. When asked whether the spat would likely
He added, however, that he still held out hope affect Chinese investor interest in Woodside’s
that the talks could be revived once relations had planned sell-down of its stake in the Sangomar
improved. oil project in Senegal, Coleman said: “No. The
Australia and China have seen tensions Australia-China thing is very specific to invest-
mount since the coronavirus (COVID-19) ments in Australia. It’s not a general issue.”
outbreak, which led Australia to lobby for an The newswire cited a new report by Austral-
independent inquiry into the pandemic’s ori- ian consultancy EnergyQuest as saying the two
gins. China has retaliated with various trade countries’ LNG trade had escaped the political
actions that have included tariff hikes on bar- skirmish and that this was likely to continue.
ley and the delay of rock lobster shipments at EnergyQuest estimated that China had imported
point of entry. 23.5mn tonnes of Australian LNG in the first 10
“They advised us a couple of months ago that months of this year.
EUROPE
Uniper reviews Germany LNG terminal
plans, considers hydrogen imports
ENERGY GERMANY’S Uniper is reviewing plans for an
TRANSITION LNG regasification terminal at Wilhelmshaven
and may decide to convert the project for hydro-
gen imports instead, it said on November 6.
The moves come after Uniper invited binding
bids for capacity at the 10bn cubic metre per year
floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU),
but got only a tepid response from the market.
“Numerous market players took part in the Other reservations were made by Swiss utility
procedure and expressed general interest, but Apxo and another unidentified company.
not enough of them have made their booking Australian investment bank Macquarie and
intentions binding,” Uniper explained. ChinaHarbour Engineering, meanwhile, want to
The German energy group is looking to use build a 5-8 bcm per year plant in Stade, but this
the project instead to import “environmentally project is at a less advanced stage.
friendly gas”, including hydrogen in the long Uniper invited bids in September for its pro-
term. ject. Last year ExxonMobil signed a provisional
Wilhelmshaven is among three proposed contract for a large portion of its capacity, but it
LNG terminals in Germany, which is Europe’s is unclear whether this deal was ever finalised.
biggest gas market but lacks in any regasification Germany has published its national hydrogen
capacity. A joint venture between the Nether- strategy, heavily prioritising the development of
lands’ Gasunie, German tank storage provider so-called green hydrogen, produced from water
Oiltanking and Dutch chemical storage firm at electrolysers powered by renewable energy.
Vopak, is developing a rival 8 bcm per year pro- It is targeting growth in hydrogen production
ject in Brunsbuettel. The group aim to strike a to 14 TWh per year by 2030 and 28 TWh per
binding deal with German power firm RWE for year by 2035-2040, but envisages that most of its
the bulk of its capacity by the end of the year. demand for the fuel will be met by imports.
Week 45 13•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17
