Natural Gas NEWS

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.

US’ second-largest oil producer, Chevron Corp has increased its oil and gas project budget for the first time in four years. The energy major will be spending $20 billion in 2019. The areas of investment will include shale production, and refining and chemicals. According to the information, $3.6 billion will be spent in the Permian Basin and New Mexico and $1.6 billion for other shale regions.

Indonesian Merakes project of Eni will start production of natural gas in 2021, informed country’s deputy energy minister. This offshore project is expected to produce 155 mmcfd of natural gas per day initially which might rise to 391 mmcfd. According to the latest revision, Eni and its partner Pertamina will take 67% of crude oil and 72% of natural gas production and the rest will go to the Indonesian government.

According to sources, Royal Dutch Shell’s Prelude floating LNG unit is expected to start at the end of the year. The natural gas produced offshore northern Australia will be processed here and exported as LNG. Prelude’s capacity of annual LNG production is assumed to be 3.6 million tonnes. Apart from LNG, it will also process 1.3 million tonnes a year of condensate and 400,000 tonnes a year of LPG.

The coal bed methane (CBM) block of India’s Reliance Industries suffered from under production due to operational issues and poor pipeline connectivity. The company’s CBM block of Madhya Pradesh had production shrink of 0.94 mmscmd in July-September from 1 mmscmd in April-June. RIL’s KG-D6 block is also depleting including Focus Energy’s Rajasthan block. Meanwhile, the monthly report of oil ministry states decrement in natural gas output of India by 1%.