Natural Gas NEWS

Woodside will delay the final approval date for its mega Browse gas project. Also, the company has decided to bring in the plans to sign off on its smaller Scarborough project. Woodside is focusing on the final investment decision on the $20.5 billion Browse project in the first half of 2021. In early 2020, it will sign off on the $11 billion Scarborough gas project and Pluto LNG expansion.

China's oil giant, Sinopec has informed about adding 44.2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas reserves in Erdos Basin. This is a new discovery by Sinopec which will take the total gas reserves at the company's Dongsheng gas field to 123.9 bcm. The company is expecting the production capacity of the new field to rise 1.5 bcm by the end of 2019 which is 1.35 bcm at present.

Natural Gas distribution firm, Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) has taken piped gas connections to more than 2 lakh homes in India, Chairman Gajendra Singh told shareholders on Monday. Singh added that the firm has expanded its CNG network to 500 stations by establishing 54 new outlets in 2018-19. IGL is now aiming at the consolidation of its position in current areas and ventures into new geographical locations.

Ancala Midstream has won a multi-billion pound contract for Zennor Petroleum’s Finlaggan field in the North Sea. This deal will enable Ancala to process gas through its Scottish Area Gas Evacuation (SAGE) terminal in St Fergus near Peterhead. The first production is expected in the fourth quarter of 2020. Ancala's CEO said, "We are delighted to have secured this long-term contract to provide processing services to the Finlaggan field".

Once the highest gas producing fields, KG-D6 block of Reliance Industries are now "a late life stage". The company informed that these fields are "in a late stage and affected by low pressure and water ingress related challenges". However, in order to increase output, Reliance will bring three sets of new discoveries to production in 2020.

Central Asian country, Turkmenistan, yesterday, unveiled the US$1.7 billion gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant. The largest GTL plant in Central Asia, it will process 1.785 billion cubic metres of natural gas every year, yielding 600,000 tonnes of gasoline a year among other liquid fuels. Built by Turkey's Rönesans and Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries, the GTL plant will help Turkmenistan monetize on the world's fourth-largest natural gas reserves.

Energy major BP along with Reliance Industries Ltd. will develop their deepwater gas field project in India. In the last two years, both the companies have sanctioned development of two other projects. All three projects are expected to require an investment of approximately 350 billion Indian rupees. The development of about 3 trillion cubic feet of discovered gas resources is expected from the projects.

Texas-based Comstock Resources has agreed to buy the natural gas firm, Covey Park in an approximately $2.2 billion deal, including debt. The acquisition is aimed at reinforcement of Comstock’s position in the Haynesville shale basin. Covey Park’s acquisition would boost Comstock’s net production to over 1.1 billion cubic feet equivalent per day.

Houston bases Apache Corp.’s Altus Midstream Co. has announced the opening of its new Permian Basin processing plant. This plant will treat its production of natural gas and natural gas liquids. Apache’s gas output is expected to experience a rise with this plant. Further, this plant would help in processing purer streams of natural gas in large volumes.

Despite a decrease in export volumes, the Russian gas producer Gazprom, has reported an increased net income in the January-March quarter. A 44% hike in the quarterly net profits has been observed whereby, the quarterly revenue rose to 2.29 trillion roubles from 2.14 trillion in the previous year. Higher sales and prices of gas are instrumental for this upturn.

Chief Executive of Total said that the strategy to acquire Anadarko's African assets is "perfectly fitting" with the company's overall strategy. The energy giant has decided to buy all the oil-and-gas-producing assets of Anadarko and its multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, for $8.8 billion. "What we tell to investors is we play to our strengths. It is just fitting exactly and perfectly with what we announced," Pouyanne said.

There has been a violent break out with the Gaza militants in Israel. This made the ministry of Israel take a decision to temporarily stop the supply of natural gas from the offshore field Tamar. This might be a problem for the nation because Israel receives its major natural gas supply from Tamar which has its production platform off the coast.

Houston based Apache Corp. has informed about its natural gas production cut in the Permian Basin. This step has been taken for an extended period of time because of the sharp pricing discounts led by pipeline shortages in the region. Apache will reduce its production by 250 million cubic feet per day. Chief Executive of Apache said, "This is the proper approach from both an environmental and economic perspective".

A gas leak occurred on February 3 on the Alba Northern installation in the North Sea, operated by Chevron. More than 80 kg of gas was released during that incident and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is investigating the matter. Chevron informed that no casualty occurred during that incident and that the company is cooperating with HSE's investigation.

The Group MD of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Mr Baru abbounced that no new gas projects will be approved without zero gas flare modalities. He also assured HOSTCOM of the benefit from the exploration of the nation's hydrocarbon resources by partnering with other host communities. Further, he said, “We will continue to dialogue with the bodies so as to create enabling operating environment for the business and for the communities”.

GAIL awarded a pipe laying contract worth Rs 270 crore to IL&FS last year but is planning to terminate that contract. This is because the financially-troubled contractor is delaying the project. According to the source “Due to its financial crisis, IL&FS is unable to pay its subcontractors and suppliers. So, these sub-contractors have stopped working and vendors have stopped supplies.” This 2,655 km pipeline is called Pradhan Mnatri Urja Ganga.

On Wednesday, OMV announced that it has signed a concession agreement with ADNOC. After this agreement, the Austrian oil and gas group will get 5% stakes in the Ghasha offshore gas and condensate fields which in turn will increase its prominence in the region. The Ghasha project of ADNOC includes three major development plans- Hail, Ghasha and Dalma.

BP Trinidad and Tobago has approved two new gas development offshore projects, Cassia Compression and Matapal. The Cassia project will enhance recovery from its existing resources, enabling BPTT to produce low pressure gas reserves. With the help of Matapal project, BPTT will develop gas resources discovered in 2017. Both these projects will help BPTT to stay true to its supply commitments to Trinidad’s National Gas Company and Atlantic LNG.