Midstream NEWS

Delfin Midstream’s wholly owned subsidiary Delfin LNG LLC has finalized a binding Liquified Natural Gas (“LNG”) Sale and Purchase Agreement (“SPA”) with Hartree Partners Power & Gas Company (UK) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hartree Partners, LP.

Nortest Cyprus Ltd, an inspection, testing and certification body, has become the newest EEMUA Associate. Based in Cyprus, the company provides a wide range of services globally to clients operating in industries such as power generation and energy, oil and gas, civil engineering and marine. Nortest is also a Notified Body (CE 2338) for pressure equipment, and lifts and machinery, and holds numerous accreditations in the field of inspection and certification, such as ISO 17020, ISO 17025 and ISO 17065.

Privately-owned Momentum Midstream has agreed to buy pipeline assets in the East Texas part of the Haynesville Shale from Mid-coast Energy for $1.3 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Houston-based Momentum has been a prolific developer of pipeline companies, although it has been out of the market since 2019 when it sold its fourth and fifth projects to Williams Companies and DT Midstream respectively.

Transaction covers all of Equinor’s operated and non-operated acreage, totaling 242,000 net acres, and associated midstream assets in the Bakken. “Equinor is optimizing its oil and gas portfolio to strengthen profitability and make it more robust for the future,” says Anders Opedal, president and chief executive officer of Equinor. The effective date of the transaction is 1 January 2021. Closing is subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions, including authority approvals.

China has launched 1,100 km section of China-Russia East gas pipeline. Operations have already started in the middle portion of the pipeline. This will facilitate smog-prone Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in northern China with the natural gas from the Power of Siberia system. The line is expected to be complete by 2025 and could transport 38 bcm per annum of gas.

Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior blocked a tanker on Thursday from delivering crude oil from Norway to Sweden’s Lysekil refinery in a protest against plans to expand it. According to Greenpeace, the expansion would result in increasing carbon dioxide emissions by up to 1 million tonnes per year, making it the largest source of Carbon dioxide emissions in the country.

Japan’s Nagashiki Shipping, chartered by Mitsui OSK ran aground on a reef in Mauritius on July 25 and later began leaking oil, causing a marine ecological disaster around the Indian Ocean Island. Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd stood to spend about $9.42 million on measures to help Mauritius for the clean-up of the island’s mangrove forests. In addition, the shipping company plans to provide further support to local fishing and tourism industries.

Hungary inks a deal to buy 250 million cubic metres of liquefied natural gas per year from Royal Dutch Shell for six years. It’s Hungary’s first long-term deal with a western company. It will secure 10% of it’s supply from the west. Before, Hungry has relied mostly on Russian gas and has never had a long-term supply agreement with any supplier other than Russia’s Gazprom.

Hermitage Offshore Services, alongside 28 of its vessel-owning subsidiaries, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The step was taken due to the collapse in global oil prices as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on on the company and it does not expect business operations and relationships with its customers and vendors to get affected while it works with its lenders through this process.

The Israeli government on Sunday approved an agreement with European countries for the construction of a subsea pipeline that would supply Europe with natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean. The Eastmed pipeline, is meant to transport gas from offshore Israel and Cyprus to Greece and on to Italy. The pipeline is planned to initially carry 10 billion cubic meters of gas/year with the possibility of eventually doubling the capacity.

A joint venture between Getka and Unimot, 3 Seas Energy landed a historic contract to provide Belarus with its new blended oil variety, White Eagle Blend. 3 Seas Energy produced the blend exclusively at the Phillips 66 Beaumont Terminal and it is being traded from the facility, because of the advantage from the area and infrastructure.

Maersk Supply Service announced that it has sold two of its Anchor Handler Tug Supply Vessels (AHTS). The divestitures of the Maersk Advancer and Maersk Asserter vessels were made due to the current market situation and the global oversupply of offshore supply vessels, Maersk Supply Service outlined. The vessels have been sold to an “international buyer” and will be modified for use in a non-competing industry, according to the company.

Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA has told shippers it will not hire any tankers that have visited Venezuela in the past 12 months, the state-controlled oil company said on Friday, signalling adherence to U.S. sanctions on the Latin American nation. Washington has said it could add to its sanctions list, a move that could disrupt sea-borne trade by sharply raising tanker rates.

The Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline has been shut down since early Saturday following an oil spill at a pump station in British Columbia. The pipeline crew are responding to a release at its Sumas Pump Station in Abbotsford, British Columbia, after an alarm was received early in the morning, Trans Mountain Corp said in a statement. The spill has been contained and cleanup is underway, the company said.

Russian oil pipeline monopoly, Transneft yesterday reported a 13% jump in the first-quarter net earnings Y/Y to 56.7 billion roubles ($822 million). The firm climbed on the back of higher sales to register a 1.3% jump in net revenue to 263.3 billion roubles. Transneft has also paid oil suppliers a whopping sum of $71 million for the April oil contamination.

The Trump administration is preparing sanctions on as many as 50 oil and fuel tankers as part of an effort to cut off trade between Iran and Venezuela, according to a person familiar with the matter.The sanctions would be imposed through the Treasury Department and are intended to avoid a U.S. military confrontation with the countries, the person said on the condition of anonymity.

Saudi Arabia's export revenue was Riyal 197.84 billion ($52.69 billion) in Q1 2020, down 20.7% from the same quarter in 2019, mainly due to a 21.9% decline in oil export revenue, the kingdom's General Authority for Statistics announced June 7. Total oil export revenue for Q1 was Riyal 149.95 billion, down from Riyal 192.03 billion for the same quarter the previous year.

Qatar has signed a deal worth around $20 billion with South Korean shipbuilders to help cement its position as the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas. The Gulf emirate entered into agreements with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. The three Korea-based firms will reserve a “major portion” of their LNG ship-construction capacity for QP through 2027.