P&GJ reports that the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved an environmental statement for the revised construction for Enbridge’s PennEast Pipeline. Going by the plan, the 118-mile natural gas pipeline project has the capacity to move up to 1.1 Bcf/d of gas from the Marcellus Shale play to markets in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Recall that the project initially faced regulatory challenges in New Jersey leading to the blocking by the state appeals court of the company’s attempt to condemn the land through the use the pipeline project. PennEast has since appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court but the has court put off hearing the decision and sought the view of the U.S. solicitor general. Phase 1 consists of 68 miles of 36-inch pipe constructed entirely within Pennsylvania and should be operational by November 2021. Phase 2 would include the rest of the route through Pennsylvania and into New Jersey with an expected completion of 2023. The FERC issued its favorable review of the proposed changes on Aug. 3." P&GJ reports   Reuters reports that an EU delegation is not comfortable with a recent U.S. State Department sanctions regarding the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea are a breach of international law, a report said on Friday. Following the stances of the US., a European Commission spokeswoman confirmed some informal outreach, or demarche in diplomatic language, which the EU member states were invited to join on a voluntary basis. Its not clear what becomes of the project in the coming weeks as the US. considers Russia's dominance of the Gas space a major threat to its national security.   Natural gas markets have rallied rather significantly during the trading session on Thursday, breaking above the psychologically important $2.50 level. If you recall yesterday, I had suggested that we need to see some type of pullback in order to buy the market but regardless I was not going to be a seller. Years of experience has taught me that you do not sell in an uptrend, regardless of whether or not you will “know the market is going to pull back.” This is a perfect example of that because anybody who has shorted the natural gas markets because it had “gotten ahead of itself”, have gotten their faces ripped off during the session.

 

 

Enegy Egypt reports that "Gulf Energy recently paid off USD 1.4 million in arrears SDX Energy owed to China’s North Petroleum for production at the North West Gemsa concession, which SDX and North Petroleum were operating together, Al Mal reports, citing an unnamed industry source." It was gathered that "SDX sold its 50% working interest in the concession to Gulf Energy last month for USD 1.6 million. The company’s stake was priced at USD 3 million, but the sale was priced at USD 1.6 million to account for the arrears Gulf Energy would have to pay down", Energy Egypt reports.

 

"Kom Ombo Petroleum — a JV between the Egyptian General Petroleum Company and Mediterra Energy — will begin drilling two wells at its Baraka concession, which is expected to cost USD 2.5-3 mn, Al Mal reports, citing unnamed industry sources. The Baraka concession has produced some 350 to 400 bbl / d of oil this year, the sources say." (Source: Energy Egypt)

 

After years of delay, Reuters reports that a delayed sub-sea pipeline which a privately owned Chinese gas distributor ENN Group and a provincial gas grid is ready for use. The completion paves the way for more imports into China's first major independent LNG terminal. Recall that the $848 million import facility located on Zhoushan Island in eastern China's Zhejiang province started operations in 2018 however, the actual operational take-off of the facility was hindered due to the delay in the pipeline's launch. A source desiring not to be mentioned says gas has started to flow through the newly completed pipeline. State-owned Zhejiang Energy Group said last week that the 81-kilometer (50-mile) pipeline will start from ENN's three million tonnes per annum (mtpa) Zhoushan terminal and will pass through islands, terminating at Zhenhai in Ningbo.      

Reuters reports that Net4Gas, a Czech gas pipeline operator has shelved its earlier planned new interconnections with Poland and Austria. The firms made this confirmation earlier in the week.   The firm which ships mostly Russian gas, reveiwed its 2021-2030 development plan to exclude its Czech-Polish pipeline project STORK II which earlier planned as a boost for cross-border capacity with Poland from 2023. In place of the suspended project, a smaller potential interconnection raising capacity is scheduled to come online from 2027/2028.   Other projects suspended include the connector to Austria called BACI which was initially scheduled to commnce in 2024 but may, now be replaced by a smaller, similar project from 2026.  

P&GJ reports that natural gas utility companies in North American have been spending nearly US.$4 million a day on programs focused on helping residential, commercial and industrial customers us fuel more efficiently.

  The spending on fuel efficiency by natural gas utility over the years have helped customers save an estimated 259 trillion Btus of energy and offset more than 13.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from 2012 to 2018 – the equivalent to removing 2.9 million cars off the road for a year.       Nigeria's federal government has reconstituted its representatives on the Boards of Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) and Bonny Gas Transport Limited (BGT).   Most of the persons currently on the board were appointed sine 2005. The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva,sadi the change was necessary to inject fresh ideas into the governance of the company.     U.S. natural gas production is experiencing a rise occasioned by the resumption of operations by the TC Energy Corp’s Mountaineer Xpress pipeline in West Virginia after weeks of unplanned work. This information was made public by the company and confirmed by data from Refinitiv, and reported by Reuters.   Data from Pipeline operations in the U.S. showed that natural gas output rose to 88.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Sunday, from a low level of 87.0 bcfd that was recorded last week. The initial fall in output is due mostly to the Mountaineer shutdown.   The operator of the Mountainee which is also a unit of the TC Energy, Columbia Gas Transmission (TCO), recently brought the 2.6-bcfd pipe back to service over the weekend after lifting a force majeure on July 11 that it imposed on July 7 due to unplanned maintenance

 

 

 

Bulgaria's state-owned gas company, Bulgartransgaz, recently announced it has received offers from 10 financial institutions to lend it 542 million euros ($613.38 million) in six-year term loans to facilitate the financing of an extension of Russia’s TurkStream gas pipeline. The total sum of the project is 1.1 billion Euro ($1.24 billion) . Advance payments have to be made to the Saudi-led group Arkad, the contractor for the 474 km (295-mile) pipeline extension dubbed Balkan Stream and to a Bulgarian-led group that will install compressor stations for the gas link.

After years of project work, Kinder Morgan Inc has now approached U.S. energy regulators on Monday for permission to start operating its seventh liquefaction train Elba Island LNG export plant in Georgia. The project costes nearly $2 billion. The Train 8 would was schedule to commence actual operations on July 13, according to a filing with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Energy Egypt reports that AIM-listed SDX Energy, the MENA-focused oil and gas company, has relinquished of its currently held 50% working interest in the North West Gemsa licence, situated in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. The acquirer, Gulf Energy, a private Egyptian oil and gas company, also made a US$3.0 million payment in consideration for the Company’s interest, of which US$1.4 million has been used to discharge the Company’s remaining liabilities on the licence.

 

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el Sisi is leading a policy to ensure that all new cars sold brought into Egypt to run on compressed natural gas (CNG) as a pre-requisite for being issued a licence as part of moves to encourage consumption of cleaner energy and help reduce fuel costs.