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up 9% to around $53bn.
Gazprom’s European gas business performed
particularly poorly, with prices down 38% and
sales volumes down 16.7%. COVID-19 and its
impact on demand was the main factor here, but
high levels of gas in storage, a warm winter and a
pre-pandemic glut in global LNG supply did not
help matters. Its sales in Russia offered compar-
ative stability.
The worst is now over for Gazprom, with
its European sales continuing their recovery
and prices slowly but surely rising. But it will be
struggling with the fallout from this steep fall in
earnings for some time.
Rosneft is understood to be unhappy with a
tax mechanism introduced last year that penal-
ises companies for charging too much for vehicle
fuel in Russia.
The so-called damper mechanism means
companies pay more in tax when domestic fuel
prices are higher than export price. But when The Maran Gas Hector LNG tanker arrived Cheniere Energy’s
Russian prices are lower, they receive a subsidy. at the facility last week, in a boost to Kinder Sabine Pass LNG
The pandemic caused European fuel prices to Morgan after a lull in exports from Elba Island facility.
collapse, but Russian prices were relatively stable. amid a downturn in demand. The company also
As such, suppliers suffered some $3.2bn in losses brought its tenth – and final – small-scale lique-
from the pandemic as a result of the damper. faction train online at the terminal last week.
Rosneft is now seeking amendments – hope- With Elba Island fully online, the first wave
fully ones that allow it to claw back some of its of US LNG export capacity construction is now
losses. But the Finance Ministry is likely to block complete. A second wave is under way, also pri-
such a move, or simply compensate for any marily on the Gulf Coast. Indeed, the two pro-
changes by introducing an additional tax on the jects under construction currently – Venture
industry elsewhere. Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG and ExxonMobil
and Qatar Petroleum’s (QP) Golden Pass LNG
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping both had to provide updates in the wake of Hur-
the former Soviet Union’s oil and gas sector then please ricane Laura passing through the area. Neither
click here for NewsBase’s FSU Monitor. site is reported to have been significantly affected
by the storm.
US LNG bounces back
US LNG operations that were disrupted by Hur- If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
ricane Laura were resuming this week, amid a the global LNG sector then please click here for
broader recovery from the slowdown over the NewsBase’s GLNG Monitor.
summer, when numerous cargoes scheduled for
loading from US terminals were cancelled. Latin America: Investors play up potential
On August 31 it was reported that Cheniere Investors in several South American countries
Energy, the leading US LNG exporter, was are eager to push ahead with new projects.
restarting its Sabine Pass liquefaction terminal in In Guyana, ExxonMobil is pressing the
Louisiana, which had been shut down in prepa- administration of Irfaan Ali, the country’s new
ration for the hurricane making landfall in the president, to give a green light to plans for the
area. The facility is reported not to have suffered development of another section of the Stabroek
any significant damage. block. The government had said previously that
On the same day, Sempra Energy said it had it expected to finish a review of the US super-ma-
been able to conduct preliminary visual inspec- jor’s field development plan (FDP) for the Payara
tions of the nearby Cameron LNG terminal. project in time to approve it before the end of
These initial assessments indicated that the August. Last week, though, Natural Resources
facility had sustained “minimal flooding and no Minister Vikram Bharrat said the deadline was
catastrophic wind damage”, Sempra said. being pushed back by a few days.
No date for a restart of Cameron LNG has been In Brazil, plans for leasing out the Bahia LNG
provided, though the company said full operations terminal have drawn strong interest from Golar
would be restored “as soon as safely practicable”. LNG. The head of the Bermuda-based com-
Despite the disruptions caused by Hurricane pany, which has already been authorised by the
Laura, US LNG exports are gathering steam after national oil company (NOC) Petrobras to partic-
a significant slowdown over the summer. In a ipate in the bidding contest for the lease, stated
different part of the US – in Georgia – Kinder last week that his company was eager to work
Morgan was reported to be loading its first cargo in Brazil as the country’s natural gas industry
in seven months from the Elba Island LNG opened up to outside investors.
terminal. In Colombia, the head of a local industry

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 35 02•September•2020