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The agreement secures the majority of the was prepared to spend more, to the tune of $4.5-
required funds for the $20bn Mozambique LNG 5.5bn, after turning in a solid financial perfor-
project. Construction on the terminal is under- mance in 2019. In the wake of the pandemic and
way, and LNG production is due to begin around the Saudi-Russian oil price war, though, it is now
2024. Total and its partners will hope that the looking at a budget of $3.0-3.4bn this year.
global glut of LNG will have eased significantly Meanwhile, the pandemic is also affecting
by then. operational performance in Argentina. New
In the immediate term, however, the glut government data show that the country saw
continues to be exacerbated by new liquefac- natural gas output drop by 12.2% year on year
tion coming online in the US. Last week, Kinder in May, marking the lowest monthly total in the
Morgan said the seventh liquefaction train at its last two decades. Yields are reported to be down
Elba Island LNG terminal was ready to enter ser- at both conventional and unconventional fields.
vice. The facility is a comparatively small-scale On a brighter note, Brazil has succeeded in
one, with each of the terminal’s 10 trains having boosting crude oil exports by 36.8% y/y in the
a capacity of 300,000 tpy of LNG. Nonetheless, first half of 2020. According to government data,
all of the remaining units are anticipated to be the country exported 38.98mn tonnes – equiva-
online by the end of the summer, contributing lent to about 1.56mn bpd – of oil worth $10.3bn
to the rise in US liquefaction capacity. It is worth between January and June. China remained the
noting, however, that no cargoes have been primary destination for Brazilian oil, absorbing
exported from Elba Island since January amid about 70% of all exports.
the downturn in global demand. In other news, Emilio Lozoya, the former
Total US LNG export capacity is anticipated head of Mexico’s NOC Pemex, has been extra-
to rise from 9.7 bcf (274.7 mcm) per day cur- dited from Spain to face corruption charges.
rently to 9.8 bcf (277.5 mcm) per day by the end Lozoya stands accused of receiving $10mn
of 2020 and 10.5 bcf (297.4 mcm) per day by the worth of bribes from a Brazilian construction
end of 2021. firm that has acknowledged making payments to
politicians in several Latin American countries.
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
the global LNG sector then please click here for If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor. the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click
here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor.
Latin America: US-Mexico ties
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect Mideast: Cuts remain in vogue
the plans and performance of operators in Latin As OPEC+ announced that cuts would be eased
America. from August 1, Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organ-
For example, Colombia’s national oil com- ization (SOMO) stated that shipments to Asian
pany (NOC) Ecopetrol has trimmed more than and European refineries would be reduced in
$1bn from its capital investment budget for order to ensure compliance with the country’s
2020. The firm had said last November that it quota.

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