Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 34

AsiaElec INDUSTRY AsiaElec
Power supply secured for Basra NGL plant
IRAQ
STATE-BACKED Basrah Gas Co. (BGC) this week signed a deal with Shamara Holding for supplying electricity to the Basrah Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) plant.
e facility forms part of the South Gas Uti- lisation Project (SGUP) on which a nal invest- ment decision (FID) was taken by super-major Royal Dutch Shell in January.
e $17.5bn development is being executed by the Basra Gas Co. (BGC) joint venture (JV) of state-owned Basrah Oil Co. (BOC), Shell and Japan’s Mitsubishi, and will treat, process and distribute associated gas from the giant Rumaila, West Qurna 1 and Zubair oil elds.
e latest stage comprises Basrah NGL, cov- ering the installation of the two-train gas-pro- cessing plant at Al-Ratawi in the west of Basra to process an additional 4.1bn cubic metres per year of gas.
According to the statement on the FID, the scheme would entail an increase in production of higher-margin LPG for export, as well as pro- viding feedstock for domestic power plants. On February 27, BGC signed a contract with China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp.
(CPECC) to carry out the work, scheduled for completion in late 2020.
Once the NGL plant is operational and hooked up to the Iraqi gas network, it will feed power stations to generate 1.5 MW or more of electricity, according to BGC managing director Frits Klap.
He added: “The new plant will have two trains that will require around 70 megawatts of electricity to run e ciently.”
In July, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil (MoO) announced a deal with Honeywell and Bechtel that would see the US services rms increase the utilisation of associated gas from ve oil elds in Basra Governorate.
In a statement, the MoO said that the addi- tional 600mn cubic feet (17mn cubic metres) per day will come in two stages, with each adding 300 mmcf (8.5 mcm) per day.
Honeywell and Bechtel will work together on the project, which is aimed at reducing gas ar- ing from the oil elds by up to 20%, and signed a joint memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the MoO on July 17.™
GRID
Thailand aims to boost cross-border links
THAILAND
THAILAND aims to become Southeast Asia’s electricity trading hub as the government pushes forward ambitious plans to make the country’s fossil fuel-reliant power systems cleaner and cheaper.
Thailand wants to triple the amount of Laos-generated power that it resells to Malaysia, said Wattanapong Kurovat, director-general of the energy policy and planning o ce, Bloomb- erg said in a report.
The government also aims to upgrade cross-border trading capacity with Cambodia and Myanmar.
Wattanapong explained that the scheme involves importing electricity from the new generation of Chinese-built hydropower plants (HPPs) on the Mekong River in Laos. ailand can then increase its exports to Malaysia, Cam- bodia or Myanmar while also making its domes- tic grid supplies more resilient.
Malaysia currently buys 100 MW from Cam- bodia via ailand, and aims to raise this to 300 MW, Wattanapong said.
Earlier in 2019, ailand’s National Energy Policy Council (NEPC) said that average power costs would remain stable between now and 2027 at THB3.50-3.63 ($0.11-0.12) per kWh. The council stressed that smart electricity
distribution systems, new renewables projects and an end to new coal power plants would make power cheaper in future. e government now intends to raise cross-border capacity with Cam- bodia and Myanmar to similar levels through the construction of new power lines and trans- former stations.
Crucially, Wattanapong argued that the new grid would allow ailand to make better use of its current power plants and grid infastructure, thereby pushing power costs down in the long term.
Cross-border trading links and integrated regional grids are common in Europe, but rare in Southeast Asia, where distances are great, investment from government and the private sector more risky and the regulatory and legal frameworks less reliable.
Improving grid links would open up new markets for planned generating projects across the region, which o en have problems gaining access to customers because of poor grid links and the lack of international connections.
As well as hydropower from Laos, the ai government said in January that it aimed to contract for 8,300 MW of independent power projects (IPPs), which will use gas, coal and renewables.™
Week 34 27 •August•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P7