Daily Digest: March 2nd, 2020

BC, CANADA AGREE DRAFT DEAL WITH HEREDITARY CHIEFS

The governments of BC and Canada and five hereditary chiefs blocking access to Coastal GasLink’s work areas in central BC, said March 1 they had reached a draft agreement to expedite the process of implementing Wet’suwet’en rights and titles in a 22,000 km2 area of the province.

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The Big Picture:

• Coastal GasLink, the cost of which was revised upwards from C$6.2bn to C$6.6bn ($5bn), will consist of 670 km of pipeline and associated facilities. It will pump up to 2.1bn ft3/day of Western Canadian basin gas from Dawson Creek to Kitimat in British Columbia, where LNG Canada is being developed.

• “Coastal GasLink will resume construction activities in the Morice River area on Monday, March 2 following the four-day pause to allow for constructive dialogue between the parties.”

ENI COMPLETES ALGERIAN GAS PIPE

Italy's Eni has announced the completion of a pipeline connecting the Bir Rebaa Nord (BRN) and Menzel Ledjmet Est (MLE) fields in the Berkine basin in southeastern Algeria.

The Big Picture:

• The fast-tracked construction of the pipeline by Eni and Algeria's Sonatrach enables the export of associated gas produced at the BRN and Bir Rebaa SW (BRSW) fields at block 403.

• Eni completed a 49% farm-in at the Sif Fatima II, Zemlet El Arbi and Ourhoud II concessions in the Berkine Nord basin in February last year. Oil production was started three months later.

OZ LNGL ACCEPTS TAKEOVER OFFER

Sydney-listed Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (LNGL) February 28 said it has accepted a takeover offer from Singapore-based LNG9.

The Big Picture:

• Under the terms of the offer, LNGL shareholders will receive US$0.13/share in cash, valuing the company at approximately US$75mn.

• LNGL is developing an 8mn metric tons/year Magnolia plant in Louisiana and the proposed 8-12mn mt/year Bear Head plant in Nova Scotia.

BRAZIL'S PETROBRAS LAUNCHES SALE OF GAS DISTRIBUTION ARM

Brazil's national oil company Petrobras announced on February 27 it had launched the sales process for its 51% stake in gas distribution holding Gaspetro.

The Big Picture:

• Gaspetro has interests in several gas distribution companies operating 10,000 km of pipeline.

• The remaining 49% of the company is held by Mitsui Gas e Energia do Brasil, a local arm of Japan's Mitsui.

GERMANY'S WINTERSHALL DEA MAKES CASE FOR GAS

Germany's Wintershall Dea has teamed up other gas companies as well as the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) and the German Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers (VIK) to outline the benefits of gas use in a new position paper.

The Big Picture:

• "To achieve the ambitious climate targets without putting Germany as an industrial location at risk, we need natural gas," Wintershall Dea CEO Mario Mehren said in a company statement announcing the paper.

• "The above-average value creation" in Germany's industrial production sector, which accounts for 27.5% of the country's GDP versus only 20% in France and the US, "is made possible to a large extent by natural gas," Mehren said. 

• Wintershall Dea said in October it had partnered up with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to research how blue hydrogen could be produced via methane pyrolysis, involving the separation of methane in gas into hydrogen and solid carbon.

OZ AGN TO SET UP HYDROGEN PLANT IN QUEENSLAND

Gas infrastructure company Australian Gas Networks (AGN) will establish an A$4.2mn hydrogen plant in Gladstone as part of the company’s national hydrogen push into Queensland, the company said February 27.

The Big Picture:

• The Gladstone plant will be Australia’s first renewable hydrogen production facility able to deliver up to 10% blended hydrogen across the city’s total 770 residential, small commercial and industrial customer base, AGN said.

• AGN expects construction to start in November this year with commissioning by October next year with the plant becoming fully operational in December 2021.