Page 17 - AsianOil Week 31

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joint venture with France’s Total and China’s surged by 205.5%.
CNPC and Silk Road Fund. In the meantime, Chinese LNG demand is also expected to
net profits were also down 40% year on year at be strong over the remainder of the year, as the
RUB41.6bn ($573mn), while EBITDA fell 38.5% country leads efforts to recover from the impact
to RUB71.3bn. of COVID-19. However, there have also been
In more upbeat news, Novatek has begun warnings that Chinese buyers of the super-
pilot production at gas condensate-bearing lay- chilled fuel will likely seek lower prices. This is
ers of the North-Russkoye and East-Tazovskoye not surprising, given the oversupplied market,
fields. but will not be welcomed by exporters seeking to
The pair have a combined annual production recover from the drop in LNG demand.
capacity of 7.7 bcm of gas and 1mn tonnes of One area where LNG has the potential to
condensate. The company intends to sell the expand is its use as a marine fuel. Last week, Gaz-
gas to local industrial customers but will export prom Neft became the first Russian company to
most of the condensate. join the Society for Gas Marine Fuel (SGMF), a
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s biggest gas producer group that seeks to promote the fuelling of ships
Ukrgasvydobuvannya (UGV) has secured a with LNG.
€51.9mn ($60.9mn) loan from the European The company has added motivation to do so,
Bank for Reconstruction and Development as the decision by Russia and its OPEC+ allies
(EBRD). The funds will be used to procure more to restrict oil supply will prevent Gazprom Neft
workover rigs to boost output at UGV’s older from advancing new oil projects. Gazprom Neft’s
fields and to increase waste-heat recovery at a parent company, Gazprom, also wants to move
key deposit in Ukraine’s northwest. into LNG bunkering. Other companies around
UGV will need all the help it can get to deliver the world may follow, as they seek areas where
on ambitious growth targets. It was already there is scope for demand to grow.
apparent long before the COVID-19 crisis began
that the company would fall far short of its goal If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
of producing 20 bcm of gas this year. The col- the global LNG sector then please click here for
lapse in European gas prices this year means its NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor.
production is now on track for a sharp decline.
Latin America: Another look at Suriname
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping This week’s issue of LatAmOil takes another look
the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please at Suriname, which recently reported a new oil
click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor. find at Block 58 in the offshore zone.
Staatsolie, the national oil company (NOC),
Searching for LNG demand growth has shown strong interest in joining Apache
US LNG exports are being forecast to rise in (US) and Total (France) in the development
August, which would mark a rebound after of Block 58. The NOC does have the right to
several months of declines amid cargo cancella- acquire a stake of up to 20% in the project, but it
tions spurred by the impact of the coronavirus would have to pay as much as $1.0-1.5bn to do
(COVID-19) pandemic on demand. Over 100 so. According to acting general manager Agnes
US LNG cargoes are estimated to have been can- Moensi-Sokowikromo, Staatsolie may have
celled so far this year, and further cancellations difficulty raising such a large sum at this time,
are expected, albeit coming at a slower pace. especially since Suriname’s credit ratings were
And even during this period of low demand, recently downgraded.
some LNG markets are growing rapidly. For Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Petronas has arranged
example, new data released by Turkey’s energy to use the Maersk Developer, a rig owned by
regulator last week showed that LNG out- Maersk Drilling (Denmark), for a drilling pro-
stripped the country’s gas pipeline imports in ject at Block 52 offshore Suriname.
May and that LNG shipments that month had The Malaysian company intends to use the rig to

Week 31 06•August•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17