Natural Gas NEWS

European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans gave the clearest signal yet that the bloc is considering a role for natural gas under its green rulebook for investments, setting up a clash with some national governments. Timmermans said that an exit from coal for some member states, like Poland, would require an “intermediary stage” using natural gas. It would be subject to strict conditions, including pre-fitting pipelines so that they can carry hydrogen and de-carbonized gases after the transition from natural gas ends.

The Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) had floated emergency bids for two cargoes to be supplied in November, as the firms involved, Gunvor and ENI, and defaulted on their commitments.

The OPEC+ oil group agreed to maintain its crude output increase for December 2021 at the pre-agreed 400,000 b/d despite calls from US, Japan and India to pump more oil into the markets.

Fears of a shortfall in oil and gas production -- even as demand continues to rise -- were looming large since Hurricane Ida slammed the Gulf of Mexico a couple of weeks ago. The American Petroleum Institute (API) confirmed those fears with its weekly inventory report released on Sept. 14: Crude oil stocks declined by 5.4 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 10 compared with a forecast drop of 3.9 million barrels. API reported a drop of roughly 2.9 million barrels in the previous week. Just the other day, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) projected demand for oil to cross pre-pandemic levels in 2022. Fear has gripped the natural gas market even harder given supply disruptions during the peak inventory buildup season ahead of the winter months. Natural gas inventories in the U.S. came in 16.8% lower year over year in the week ended Sept. 9, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

OPEC's strong demand forecast comes amid tight oil supply as a significant portion of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico remains offline nearly two weeks after Hurricane Ida. With Tropical Storm Nicholas now heading toward the Texas oil hub, fears of further disruption in oil supply loom large. Given the backdrop, investors in upstream oil stocks such as Vermilion Energy and Centennial Resource Development are unsurprisingly excited. Higher oil prices mean more money for these oil producers, which they can then use to produce more oil to meet higher demand. That also means better prospects for oil-field service companies such as Helix Energy. Last quarter, Helix Energy downgraded its 2021 revenue outlook to $635 million at the midpoint from previous midpoint guidance of $662.5 million, representing roughly 13.5% drop over 2020 revenue.

BJ Energy Solutions' first 40,000 Horsepower (HHP) TITAN fleet began a phased deployment in the Haynesville on Jan. 5, becoming fully operational by Jan. 31. The fleet has surpassed a cumulative 7,000 TITAN pump hours and is the first fleet to use 100% natural gas for fracturing completions in the Haynesville.

Paris: Gas power plants overtook lignite coal plants in 2020 to become the European Union's largest single source of emissions from electricity, an analysis of the bloc's Emissions Trading Scheme showed Friday.Gas plants produced 231 million tonnes of carbon dioxide across the continent in 2020 according to the analysis conducted by energy think tank Ember.

NEW DELHI: Amid record-high fuel prices, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said there is no proposal as of now to bring crude oil, petrol, diesel, jet fuel (ATF) and natural gas under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).This meant that the central government continued to levy excise duty on them while state governments charged VAT. These taxes, with excise duty, in particular, have been raised periodically.

India’s petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday said that there is an increased push for adopting “hydrogen fuel mix."This comes in the backdrop of India’s National Hydrogen Energy Mission in the works, which may mandate fertilizer, steel and petrochemicals industries to shift to green hydrogen use.

Turkey’s state-owned oil and gas company is considering partnerships and plans to raise funding this year to carry out work on biggest natural gas discovery in the Black Sea. The necessary capital investment to produce the gas and deliver it onshore is estimated at around $3.2 billion. TPAO was allocated 13.4 billion liras ($1.9 billion) from the government’s 2021 budget.

As much as 40% of the natural gas that’s expected to be flared in the Permian Basin in 2025 could be avoided at no cost to drillers if regulators abandoned their hands-off approach to the controversial practice. Flaring, which plunged in 2020 as the pandemic forced shale producers to curtail output, is set to rebound as oil prices recover.

Baker Hughes Co. expects as many as four liquefied natural gas projects globally to move to a final investment decision this year amid a global revival of the fuel after last year's pandemic-induced collapse. By 2030, we still need to have capacity of approximately 650 to 700 million tons of LNG in place," CEO Lorenzo Simonelli told analysts and investors.

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.

Gujarat State Petronet Ltd has decided to raise its gas transmission by about a quarter from the next Fiscal year. The Mehsana-Bhatinda pipeline which will be completed by March is the key factor for the decision. Joint MD of GSPL Mr.Sanjeev Kumar added, "The initial capacity utilization of the Mehsana-Bathinda pipeline will be 9 to 10 mmscmd, which will be scaled up as new gas import terminals come up in the state,"

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.

India will on Monday get its very own natural gas trading platform that will help discover local market price for gas through transparent demand-supply matching. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will launch the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX) to kickstart natural gas trading, official sources said. IGX is India's first automated national level trading platform to promote and sustain an efficient and robust gas market and foster gas trading in the country.

Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey has called on the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to open an investigation into the future of the natural gas industry as Massachusetts transitions away from fossil fuels and toward a clean renewable energy future by 2050. Massachusetts could become the third state to launch a regulatory proceeding to proactively manage the state’s transition away from natural gas.

Struck by weak demand and depleting storage facilities, the world’s biggest exporter of LNG may soon have to: curb output or ignite a battle for market share that has the potential. Qatar began redirecting LNG cargoes away from Asia in February, where the coronavirus was shattering sales, and sending them to Europe. That quick fix didn’t last, as the pandemic left Qatar struggling for places to park unsold cargoes.