Russian Piped Gas Exports to Europe Fall 30% in January
Pipeline natural gas exports to Europe by Russian energy giant Gazprom declined nearly 30% in January from December amid falling prices at the spot market, hitting a new monthly all-time low, according to a Reuters report.
Calculations based on daily data of Russian gas exports via Ukraine and the TurkStream pipeline showed Gazprom’s gas exports to Europe fell in January to 1.8 Bcm from 2.5 Bcm in December.
Gazprom halted gas supplies last year via the Yamal-Europe pipeline which traverses Belarus, Poland and terminates in Germany, as well as through the undersea Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was damaged by explosives in September.
Nord Stream 1, with annual capacity of 55 Bcm, was already standing idle at the time of the blasts due to a dispute about on-land equipment maintenance.
According to European gas transmission group Entsog and Gazprom’s daily reports on its transit via Ukraine, Gazprom’s average daily gas supplies to Europe declined to 58.1 MMcm in January from 81.9 MMcm in December.
Gas Pipeline, Oil Terminal Flows Halted by Earthquake
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6 halted operations at Turkey’s oil terminal in Ceyhan and flows via Iraq’s northern oil export pipeline from Kirkuk.
Turkish pipeline operator BOTAS said there was no damage on main pipelines which carry crude oil from Iraq and Azerbaijan to Turkey, but natural gas flows were halted to Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaras provinces and some other districts because of damage to a gas transmission line.
Oil ports in southeastern Turkey were also affected and operational delays in operations were reported, sources told the Reuters news agency.
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) halted flows through a crude oil pipeline that runs from Iraq’s northern Kirkuk fields to Ceyhan, the region’s ministry of natural resources (MNR) said. About 475,000 bpd was being pumped through the through the pipeline before it was shut down.
Oil exports will resume after a “careful inspection of the pipelines is finalized,” an MNR statement said.
No damage was reported at the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) terminal, which handles Azeri crude flows to Turkey, but inspections were planned. Sources told Reuters there was sufficient storage Baku and in Ceyhan, about 96 miles (155 km) from the earthquake’s epicenter.
The earthquake killed and injured thousands of people as buildings collapsed in the hardest-hit region of southern Turkey and northwest Syria,
Spain Doubles LNG Ship Loadings, Eyes H2 PIPELINE
The number of ships loading LNG in Spain and taking it across Europe doubled in 2022 compared with the previous year, helping ease the energy crisis driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, gas grid operator Enagas said.
Traffic is expected to rise further after Enagas last month revealed a new platform at its Barcelona port regasification plant for small- and medium-sized boats to load LNG.
Seeking to “maximize solidarity with Italy,” Spain’s energy minister announced in September it would adapt a jetty at the plant to increase loading capacity for vessels carrying gas to Italy, which has sought to reduce its reliance on Russian gas.
Enagas chief executive Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri said European Union funds could finance 30%-50% of a subsea hydrogen pipeline between Spain and France. The two countries have agreed to explore the possibility of building a pipeline to ship green hydrogen between Barcelona and Marseille at a cost of about 2.1 billion euros, Gonzalo said, while a connection between Spain and Portugal would cost around 350 million euros.
Spain has six LNG terminals it says could help supply central Europe, while another is expected to be operative in coming weeks. The one in Barcelona is the largest in Europe, according to Enagas.
CO2 Pipeline Developer Sues Iowa County Over Local Ordinance
The developer of a Midwest carbon capture pipeline network has sued Shelby County in Iowa, saying its ordinance restricting the siting of hazardous pipelines is overruled by a federal pipeline safety law.
Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions said in a complaint filed in Iowa federal court in early February that the rule, passed by Shelby County on Nov. 1, could stall a segment of the pipeline network that would connect several Midwest states. It says the Pipeline Safety Act overrules local ordinances and wants the courts to bar the rule’s implementation.
“The value of Iowa ethanol production, and the value of corn in Iowa – and throughout the Nation - depends on, and will likely increasingly depend on, carbon-reduction efforts of Iowa ethanol facilities,” Summit said in the complaint.
Summit has proposed a 1,900-mile network of underground pipelines that would connect five states and allow ethanol plants to ship liquefied carbon emissions captured during production to sequester sites in North Dakota. About 650 of the pipeline system would be constructed in Iowa.
TotalEnergies CEO Met Mozambique President over LNG Project
The head of TotalEnergies met Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi early this month to discuss the humanitarian situation in the Cabo Delgado area, where a 2021 attack on civilians led to a key LNG project being halted.
The French company said its chairman and chief executive, Patrick Pouyanne, had visited the Cabo Delgado area to review the security and humanitarian situation, and that Pouyanne had met the Mozambique President during his trip.
TotalEnergies added it had entrusted Jean-Christophe Rufin, whom it said was an expert in humanitarian action and human rights, with an independent mission to assess the humanitarian situation in Cabo Delgado province.
TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG project, valued at $20 billion, had to declare ‘force majeure’ in 2021 due to regional unrest after an insurgent group linked to Islamic State attacked the northern town of Palma.
Trinidad Offers to Pay for Gas with Humanitarian Supplies
Trinidad and Tobago could pay Venezuela for natural gas produced at an offshore development with humanitarian supplies like food and medicine, Prime Minister Keith Rowley said, to comply with a U.S. license prohibiting cash payments to the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
The U.S. Treasury Department in January issued a license allowing Trinidad to co-develop the Dragon gas field, which holds 4.2 Tcf of reserves on the Venezuelan side of the maritime border with Trinidad. The project would have Trinidad import the gas and turn it into exportable LNG.
“We have done that before. So, we buy the gas, and we pay for it in a variety of ways,” Rowley told journalists. Trinidad previously supplied Venezuela with about $50 million in humanitarian goods, he said.
Venezuela has resorted to swaps to make its economy work amid stiff U.S. sanctions prohibiting financial transactions or the use of dollars to pay Venezuela or the country’s state companies.
Maduro has been pressing Washington and other governments to free over $3 billion frozen in foreign bank accounts – money which could be used to import food, medicine and other goods.
Kinder Morgan Sees Credits Speeding Clean Energy Investments
U.S. funding for clean energy projects will help energy pipeline operator Kinder Morgan accelerate its investments in renewable natural gas and carbon sequestration, the Houston-based pipeline operator said.
The $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed into law last September expanded tax credits for industrial projects that capture, reuse or permanently store carbon dioxide, a gas that contributes to climate change.
The funding “accelerates growth opportunities” in renewable natural gas (RNG), renewable diesel, hydrogen as well as carbon capture and storage (CCS), according to a presentation by Kinder Morgan, the largest operator of carbon dioxide pipelines in North America.
Opportunities to speed up development targets for CCS projects are tied to the increase in credits – to $85 per ton from $50 per ton – for carbon sequestration. The law also provides $60 per ton for carbon used for enhanced oil recovery, used in Kinder Morgan’s oil business.
Myanmar’s Zawtika Development Progresses toward 2025 Start
The new Zawtika development Project in Myanmar’s Gulf of Moattama has entered to its fourth phase of construction, as the project moves toward final commissioning in 2025. At its peak, this development is expected producing approximately 400 MMcf/d of natural gas.
The fourth construction phase consists of eight new remote extraction wells and their associated pipelines, including two pipelines and manifolds. Sarens, the provider of crane rental, heavy lift and engineered transportation services said it was called in by the Vietsovpetro joint venture to assist in loading two of jackets weighing about 5,000 tons each at the port of Vung Tau in Vietnam.
Sarens said its engineering team deployed four 588-ton strandjacks to pull the jackets into its final position on the barge used for its transport. As a part of the load-out operation, Sarens used a set of submersible and deck pumps in combination with the barge’s internal ballasting system to balance the barge’s level at the quayside.
Argentina Looks to Add Pipeline as Vaca Muerta Oil Grows
Economy Minister Sergio Massa said in late January that the government expected to launch an auction for the construction of the second section of a major natural gas pipeline from the Vaca Muerta shale within 90 days.
Vaca Muerta, located in the Patagonian province of Neuquen, is the world’s No. 2 shale gas reserve and No. 4 oil reserve. It is viewed as key to Argentina’s goal of reducing its dependence on pricey energy imports, but growth has been slowed by a shortage of pipeline takeaway capacity.
Argentina posted record production of shale oil in December, the energy ministry said, as development of the country’s huge Vaca Muerta shale formation fuels output gains.
The South American nation produced a daily average of 282,400 barrels of shale oil in December, up by nearly a third compared with the same month of 2021.
Trans Mountain Expansion to be Operational by 2024 – Shipper
MEG Energy, an oil shipper on Canada’s Trans Mountain Expansion project, said the pipeline is expected to start filling with oil in late 2023 and be fully operational early next year.
The Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline, which transports crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the Pacific Coast, will boost capacity to 890,000 bpd from its current 300,000 bpd once the expansion is complete.
The C$21.4 billion ($16.00 billion) project is over budget and behind schedule, but its completion will be a major boost for Canadian oil producers by opening a significant export route to markets in Asia.
“We’re being told linefill potentially at the end of 2023 and fully operational in the first quarter,” MEG Energy CEO Derek Evans told Reuters in an interview.
Trans Mountain has only said publicly that it expects the expansion to be mechanically completed in the third quarter of 2023.
Pakistan Could Start Importing Russian Oil After March
Russia could start exporting oil to energy-starved Pakistan after March if agreement is reached and is discussing with Islamabad whether payment could be made in the currencies of “friendly” countries, Russia’s energy minister said.
Pakistan has been battling a balance of payment crisis with foreign exchange reserves falling to $4.6 billion, barely enough to cover three weeks of imports – mostly for oil. It said in October it was considering buying discounted Russian crude, citing neighboring India, which has been purchasing from Moscow.
Pakistani officials and Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov, who was in Islamabad for an annual inter-governmental commission on trade and economy in late January, said agreement had not yet been reached on the key elements of the deal.
“As for the supply of crude oil and petroleum products, we conceptually agreed on the development and signing of an agreement that will determine and resolve all issues of logistics, insurance, payment, volumes,” Shulginov told reporters in Russian, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Shulginov also said “negotiations are going on” about settlement in the currencies of “friendly” countries, meaning non-Western countries that have not imposed economic sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Oil is generally paid for in dollars. P&GJ