Page 6 - FSUOGM Week 27

FSUOGM NRG FSUOGM

Oil storage facilities
in the UAE port of
Fujairah, owned by
Brooge Energy.

plant, which left two dead and seven injured. prices. The widely repeated claim that Austral-
The blaze broke out one day after the North ia’s wholesale prices are higher than in the coun-
Gauteng High Court cancelled a controversial tries importing our LNG has once again [been]
tender for fuel supplies to Pretoria. The court shown to be without foundation.”
issued this ruling after identifying irregularities McConville said: “Interestingly, the statis-
with the tender, which has given rise to allega- tics show countries with the highest gas prices
tions of fraud and corruption. including Chinese Taipei, South Korea, Japan,
Singapore and China – well above Australia – all
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping have successful major manufacturing sectors.”
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for While acknowledging that Australia’s whole-
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor . sale prices were higher than in other major pro-
ducers such as the US, Canada, Russia and in the
Australian gas price is competitive, says Middle East, McConville the difference reflected
industry lobby the “high cost of doing business in Australia, and
Australia’s upstream industry lobby has used a increasingly the impact of restrictions on the
new International Gas Union (IGU) report to development of natural resources”.
counter arguments that the country’s wholesale
natural gas prices are too high. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Australia’s wholesale gas price averaged $5.58 Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
per mmBtu in 2019, according to the IGU’s NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor.
Wholesale Gas Price Survey 2020. The survey
of 53 countries showed that Australia’s price was DMEA: Storage in vogue
around 40% less than the Asia-Pacific’s average At the height of coronavirus (COVID-19) lock-
wholesale price, while it was just under 30% downs, oil and fuel storage was more in demand
cheaper than the Asian region’s average whole- than it has been in decades. The operators of this
sale price. storage therefore enjoyed record earnings during
The IGU’s survey results showed that Taiwan, the crisis.
South Korea and Japan paid the highest whole- Brooge Energy, which manages capacity at
sale gas price at or more than $10 per mmBtu, the UAE’s Fujairah hub, was already achieving
while China paid the sixth highest price. strong results before COVID-19. The company
Australia ranked 18th overall in terms of said last week it had earned $44mn in revenues
prices, with the lowest to be found in countries in 2019, up 23% year on year. It has both its Phase
with highly regulated markets where produc- 1 and Phase 2 facilities fully booked, the latter
ers sold gas below the cost of production and group due to start coming into operation in the
transportation. second half of this year, meaning it can look for-
The Australian Petroleum Production and ward to a further surge in turnover.
Exploration Association (APPEA) seized on the Brooge aims to have eight new oil storage
report, saying it put to bed frequently repeated tanks with a combined capacity of 3.8mn barrels
claims that Australia paid more for gas than up and running by the end of the year.
those countries that bought its liquefied natural Iran is targeting an ambitious ramp-up in its
gas (LNG) exports. petrochemicals capacity over the next year. Offi-
APPEA chief executive Andrew McCon- cials say projects worth $11.5bn with a combined
ville said: “Even before the sharp contraction annual production capacity of 25mn tonnes
we’ve seen in gas prices this year, Australian gas per year (tpy) should be operational by March
users have enjoyed very competitive wholesale 2021. Iran has found it easier to sells fuels and

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 27 08•July•2020