Page 16 - AsianOil Week 02 2021

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LNG spot prices in Northeast Asia have risen on country have served to open up a “window of
seasonal winter demand and some supply short- opportunity” for new investments. Additionally,
ages. But the impact of the outages at Gorgon is it has highlighted UruboCorp’s experience in the
somewhat limited by Chevron only taking one local energy sector, saying it hoped to benefit
train at a time offline for maintenance. from its association with the Bolivian company.
Royal Dutch Shell, meanwhile, had more Changing conditions may also be a factor in
positive news to report as it returned its giant EIG Energy Partners’ decision to sell a 27.5%
Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) project to service. stake in TBG, the operator of the Brazilian sec-
The facility – the largest floating structure ever tion of GASBOL, a pipeline built to pump Boliv-
built – had been offline for around a year owing ian natural gas to the Brazilian market, for an
to a technical disruption to its diesel genera- unspecified sum. GASBOL has been operating
tors, which illustrates the complexity of FLNG below capacity for some time, as Brazil has been
technology. importing less Bolivian fuel.
Analysts have said that the remote location The sale is not indicative of any loss of interest
of the Prelude facility, 475 km off Australia’s west in the Brazilian gas sector on EIG’s part, how-
coast, as well as restrictions related to the corona- ever. The US-based investment fund said in a
virus (COVID-19) pandemic have complicated press release announcing the sale that it wanted
Shell’s efforts to restart operations. Nonetheless, to expand its involvement in Brazilian gas pro-
the super-major said that as Prelude is a mul- jects and hoped to work with Fluxys to achieve
ti-decade project, its focus in on sustained per- this goal.
formance over the long term.
However, Shell has backed out of other FLNG If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
projects, as have other producers, likely deterred the Latin American oil and gas sector then please click
by having witnessed the challenges at Prelude. here for NewsBase’s LatAmOil Monitor.
MEOG: Saudi takes charge as Iran contin-
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping ues output push
the global LNG sector then please click here for Saudi Arabia has signalled to the oil market that
NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor. it does not need consensus from its OPEC part-
ners to make major moves, while its regional
Latin America: Bolivian opportunities nemesis Iran continues to award contracts in
UK-based Echo Energy has signed a co-opera- pursuit of higher oil production.
tion agreement with Bolivia’s GTL International, The Kingdom’s energy minister, Prince
a subsidiary of UruboCorp. Abdulaziz bin Salman, apparently took every-
The two companies have pledged to work one by surprise when he announced a 1mn bpd
together to promote, identify and develop new production cut for February and March follow-
opportunities in the South American country’s ing Russia and Kazakhstan being given room to
hydrocarbon and renewable energy sectors. make small increases.
They have also agreed to grant each other a six- While Saudi output will be reduced to
month period of exclusivity. 8.119mn bpd, Iran has continued announcing
So far, Echo has not said whether it is inter- contract awards to local firms as the Islamic
ested in any specific projects in Bolivia. However, Republic seeks to raise its own production by
it has said it believes changing conditions in that around 355,000 bpd, and has committed nearly

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