Natural Gas Daily: June 19th, 2020
Europe's Gas Oversupply Starts Easing: Marex
Europe's imports of LNG inflow continue to drop and are now a quarter of where they were at the end of May, according to research by Marex Spectron. Higher demand and lower supplies have cut about 15% off the price difference between the third and fourth quarters of the year to about €4/MWh, at the Dutch hub, the title transfer facility.
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The Big Picture:
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Owing to carbon prices and cheap gas, Germany is burning equal amounts of gas and coal to produce electricity and the capacity utilisation of gas is 55% higher than last year despite the overall weakness in demand, it said.
Venture Global Begins Installing Liquefaction Equipment
US LNG developer Venture Global said it has begun installing liquefaction equipment at its 10mn mt/yr Calcasieu Pass LNG development in Louisiana.
The Big Picture:
- The cold boxes, manufactured in the US by Chart Industries, arrived at the project site four months ahead of schedule and just 10 months after Venture Global took a final investment decision on Calcasieu Pass.
Groningen Output Capped at 9.3bn m3 in 2020-21
Gas production at the Netherlands' Groningen gas field will be capped at 9.3bn m3 in the gas year starting October 1 2020, down from 11.8bn m3 in the current year, Dutch gas regulator SodM said.
The Big Picture:
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The field, operated by a joint venture between ExxonMobil and Shell, is due to halt production completely at the end of 2022 to limit the risks of earthquakes in the region.
Gazprom-Shell LNG JV Extends Russian Licences
The Gazprom-led Sakhalin Energy consortium has secured licence extensions for its Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye fields in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East, it said on June 18. The licences, originally issued in May 1996, have been extended by five years until May 2026.
The Big Picture:
- The group exports LNG from the 11mn mt/yr Sakhalin LNG export plant, which is operating at half-capacity now owing to maintenance.
Renergen, Total to Market LNG in SA
Johannesburg and Sydney-listed Renergen has signed an agreement with French Total to jointly market and distribute LNG in South Africa, it said on June 18 in a statement. The commodity will be distributed through Total’s fuel stations in the country.
The Big Picture:
- Renergen is in the construction phase of South Africa’s first commercial LNG plant, and is anticipating a turn-on date of the plant around the third quarter 2021.
- Earlier this year, the company agreed to supply LNG to South Africa’s Bulk Hauliers International Transport.
RWE to Finalise German LNG Import Contract by Year-end
German energy company RWE and German LNG Terminal, the venture developing Germany's first regasification terminal at Brunsbuettel, intend to finalise contracts for LNG imports by the end of this year, the pair said on June 18.
The Big Picture:
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The partners also signed they had signed a memorandum on jointly exploring opportunities for green hydrogen, produced using renewable energy.
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Germany has just unveiled a new strategy to develop hydrogen as an energy source, aimed at establishing 10 GW of hydrogen generation capacity by 2040.
