Page 10 - EurOil Week 26 2019

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil
Petronas quits Dragon LNG
UK
MALAYSIA’S national oil concern Petronas has o oaded its 50% stake in the Dragon LNG import terminal in the Welsh town of Milford Haven to London-based infrastructure inves- tor Ancala Partners. The Malaysian firm will continue buying supplies from Dragon under a long-term agreement, however.
“Dragon LNG is well placed to bene t from reducing UK gas storage capacity and maturing North Sea gas production,” Lee Mellor, a partner at Ancala, commented on July 2. “With revenues underpinned by a long-term availability-based throughput agreement with Shell and Petronas, the transaction represents an attractive addition to our portfolio and expands our midstream infrastructure activities.”
e deal’s price tag was not disclosed.
Dragon LNG, one of three LNG import plants in the UK, is capable of bringing ashore up to 9bn cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year. Commissioned in 2009, it recently underwent a revamp enabling it to re-liquefy gas as well.
UK North Sea gas production slumped 3.1% in 2018 to 40.6bcm, a er several years of modest gains. Meanwhile, the country’s consumption reached 78.9bcm, marking a slight increase on the previous year. Its LNG imports soared to
their highest monthly level in years in March, hitting almost 1.2mn tonnes, amid surplus sup- ply ooding out of the US and Russia and weak demand in Asia.
e UK has another LNG plant in Milford Haven, South Hook, along the Grain LNG terminal in Kent, which is due to undergo an expansion.
Royal Dutch Shell controls the other 50% of Dragon LNG. e Anglo-Dutch major was rumoured to be sounding out potential buyers for its share back in 2016, before apparently deciding against the move.
“We look forward to working with Dragon LNG’s excellent team in continuing to grow and optimise performance of the terminal,” Mellor said.™
Watchdog orders Bulgartransgaz to pick Saudi firm for pipe deal
BULGARIA
BULGARIA’S regulatory watchdog has ordered state-owned gas network operator Bulgartrans- gaz to hire a Saudi rm to build the Bulgarian section of Russia’s TurkStream gas pipeline, overruling the company’s decision to select a Russian-linked group.
Bulgartransgaz earlier held a tender for the contract, initially recognising a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Arkad Engineering as the win- ner with the highest-ranking bid. But without explanation, in May it opted instead for the sec- ond-place bidder, a group called GRRB Consor- tium Gas Development and Expansion. GRRB’s members include Italian contractors Bonatti and Max Streicher, along with Luxembourg-regis- tered Completions Development. Local media linked the latter rm with Russian pipe manu- facturer TMK.
At the time, Bulgartransgaz said Arkad had failed to provide the necessary documents to sign the contract on time, although the Saudi rm claimed no timeframe had been de ned for ling this paperwork. Bulgaria’s Competition
Protection Commission (CPC) said on July 1 that Bulgartransgaz’s decision was inadmissi- ble and in breach of public procurement rules, responding to an appeal by Arkad in June.
Arkad o ered in April to complete the 484- km stretch of TurkStream across Bulgarian territory with 250 days for €1.29bn ($1.5bn), or €1.10bn ($1.2bn) if the timeframe was extended to 615 days.
e TurkStream pipeline will consist of two 15.8bn cubic metre per year strings running from Russia under the Black Sea to western Turkey. Russia’s state-owned Gazprom wants to extend the European line through Bulgaria and Serbia by 2020 and then through Hungary and Slovakia by 2021 and 2022 respectively. Accord- ing to Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenu- zhka Petkova, the country will spend €1.4bn ($1.59bn) on its stretch of the pipeline.
Bulgartransgaz greenlit the project at the end of January, a er successfully completing a third market test during which all of the future pipe- line’s capacity was booked by suppliers.™
P10
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 26 04•July•2019