Daily Digest: February 6th, 2020

China’s biggest LNG buyer Cnooc has declared a force majeure on some of its contracts, because the coronavirus has constrained its ability to import the fuel, Bloomberg reported.

Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) will create an offshore gas project division to focus on LNG projects, it said last week in a statement.

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Finland’s Wartsila revealed it had won an order to supply gas engines for two 146-MW gas-fired power plants in Myanmar. 

Norway’s Equinor swung to a net loss of $230mn in the fourth quarter, according to company results published today, from a $3.37bn profit a year earlier. Fellow European oil companies BP and Shell also reported diminished earnings in the fourth quarter, although their net income stayed in the black.

France’s Total announced it had sold its 27.5% stake in the 8.25bn m3/yr Fos Cavaou LNG import terminal near Marseille to its operator Elengy, for $260mn. Total's adjusted net income for Q4 2019 was $3.17bn, unchanged from the year prior period, as higher output offset the lower crude and gas prices and refining margins.

Austria’s OMV has reported a fall in core fourth-quarter profits, as production gains were offset by weaker prices.

Italian oil field services company Saipem has won a round of engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contracts for oil and gas operations worth in excess of $500mn, it said.

The Dutch virtual gas storage capacity auction sold out at an average weighted price of €7.22/MWh, the national gas marketer GasTerra said. The auction was carried out by Intercontinental Exchange on January 29 on GasTerra's behalf.

German utility Uniper has begun building two gas turbines and a steam boiler at the hard coal-fired Scholven power plant site, it said. 

UK gas and power grid operator National Grid Electricity Supply Operator has awarded Uniper four contracts, each of six years, to manage power grid stability but without combustion, the German utility said.

The output from the second stage of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field (SD2) has reached 26mn m³/d, about 60% of its full capacity, the operator BP told NGW. 

BP is searching for buyers for its stake in a major gas complex in Algeria, after a plan to sell the share to Russia’s Rosneft fell through, Reuters reported citing sources.

Namibia-focused Reconnaissance Energy Africa has entered into an agreement with Henderson Rigs (Houston) for the acquisition of a Crown 750 rig for drilling in the Kalahari Desert, the company said February 4.

PanAfrican Energy Tanzania (PAET), suppliers of up to 40% of Tanzania's gas for electricity production and industrial use, has unveiled a plan to spend an estimated $48mn this year to boost output. 

Calgary-based Touchstone Exploration confirmed a major liquids-rich gas discovery at a well onshore Trinidad & Tobago.