Page 12 - DMEA Week 24

DMEA TRANSPORT DMEA

Sonatrach revising export strategy

ALGERIA ALGERIA’S Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab intended to expand in new directions. The com-
said last week that his country was eager to pany will seek to optimise its opportunities with
“remain the preferred supplier” of natural gas respect to the development of shale gas reserves
to Europe. He also stressed, though, that the and the expansion of LNG exports, he said.
national oil company (NOC) Sonatrach would Other gas-producing countries have already
have to work hard to achieve this goal. invested heavily in such projects, and Algeria is
Speaking on the sidelines of a plenary session ready to follow suit, he added.
of the Council of the Nation, the upper house of “The world changes, and so do we,” he
Algeria’s parliament, Arkab said that Sonatrach remarked.
would have to adapt its marketing strategy to Algeria currently delivers natural gas to
current conditions. The company “is changing Europe via subsea pipelines across the Med-
its commercial strategy” in light of recent devel- iterranean Sea. It supplies fuel to Spain via the
opments, he said, according to a government Maghreb-Europe Gas (MEG) link and the Med-
press release. gaz system. Both pipes originate at the Hassi
The minister did not reveal any details of the R’Mel field, but MEG passes through Morocco
revisions under consideration, but he did note on its way to the Spanish city of Cordoba, which
that Sonatrach was now facing more competi- is connected to the Portuguese gas grid, while
tion that it has in the past. In the face of this com- Medgaz passes directly from the Algerian port
petition, he said, the NOC needs to play up its of Beni Saf to Almeria, Spain.
own advantages, particularly its access to export Additionally, Algeria pumps gas to Italy via
pipelines that link Algerian gas fields directly the Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline (TransMed).
to European markets. These pipelines give the This network passes through Tunisia and then
North African state an edge over other potential continues on through Sicily to mainland Italy.
gas suppliers, he said. It also includes an extension that pumps gas to
Additionally, Arkab indicated that Sonatrach Slovenia. ™

Croatian LNG terminal fully

booked for first few years

CROATIA THE import capacity of Croatia’s planned Krk 2024-25, 0.624 bcm per year in 2025-26 to
LNG terminal is fully booked for its first few 2029-30 and 0.936 bcm in 2030-31 to 2034-
years of operation, the project’s developer LNG 35. PowerGlobe is an LNG management firm
Hrvatska announced on June 15, after a major based in Qatar, the world’s biggest exporter of
reservation by Qatari firm PowerGlobe. the super-cooled fuel.
All the terminal’s 2.5bn cubic metre per Earlier this month seven years of capacity
year of gasification capacity has been sold out were booked by Hungary’s MFGK and three
between its launch on January 1, 2021 and Octo- years by Swiss-based trading group MET. Two
ber 2023. Some 2.1 bcm of annual capacity has Croatian firms also made reservations.
been reserved over the following four years up The Krk project is anticipated to deliver gas
until October 2027, and a further 1.14 bcm per not only to Croatian customers but potentially
year between 2027 and 2030. others in Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia and
“By this project we achieve security of gas Slovenia. Its €234mn ($266mn) cost is partially
supply for Croatia and we contribute to the secu- covered by a €101mn grant from the European
rity of gas supply for the EU,” Croatian Energy Commission, which has listed it as an EU project
Minister Tomislav Coric said on June 16. “Due of common interest (PCI).
to the higher competition on the gas market we There were concerns about whether there was
expect that the gas prices in Croatia may fall.” enough gas demand in Southeast Europe to jus-
LNG Hrvatska reported that PowerGlobe tify Krk’s construction. But results from the lat-
had subscribed for 15 years of capacity at Krk. est capacity auctions have dispelled these doubts.
This included 0.468 bcm between January 1 According to Coric, the project should generate
and September 30, 2021, a further 0.468 bcm more than €100mn ($113mn) in revenues over
annually in the gas years 2021-22 up until the next five years. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 18•June•2020