Natural Gas NEWS

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.

India's oil major, ONGC, wants marketing and pricing freedom along with the tax cuts. The company wrote an SOS to the government seeking help amidst the crashing prices and slumping market. It has become a challenge to continue with sustaining operations. And if the conditions persist, ONGC might have to cut down on investments. Last month also the state-owned company wrote to the government regarding the abolition of oil cess.

The second-largest US oil company, Chevron expects $10 billion-$11 billion charge in the fourth quarter. Following this, the company is also planning to sell some of its natural gas projects to prepare for long term low prices. "With capital discipline and a conservative outlook comes the responsibility to make the tough choices necessary to deliver higher cash returns to our shareholders over the long term", said the Chief Executive.

Global carbon emission has hit record levels in 2019 because of the increased use of natural gas. According to the analysis of the Global Carbon Project, CO2 emissions were on a course to rise 0.6% this year. This increase has been recorded even after a substantial decline in the use of coal. "Natural gas is now the biggest contributor to the growth in emissions", says the Carbon Budget report.

Shanghai Futures Exchange has informed that China will launch low-sulphur fuel oil futures in the first quarter of 2020. This would be China's second bonded oil futures contract. The first contract was in March 2018 on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE), a ShFE subsidiary. Apart from this, ShFE will actively promote the launch of alumina future also.

Poland's, PGNiG has decided not to renew the major contract with Russia's Gazprom after it ends in 2022. The company has already notified Gazprom about its "intent to terminate" the contract. This Yamal contract was started in 1996. Currently, two-third of the gas consumed in the nation is delivered by Russia under Yamal. Poland has been long wanting to seize its dependency on Russian gas.

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.