Natural Gas Daily: October 26th, 2020

MAJORS UNITE FOR NORTH SEA CCS PROJECT

Europe's five biggest oil and gas producers – BP, Eni, Equinor, Shell and Total – have teamed up to develop infrastructure to transport and store carbon emissions in the UK North Sea, BP announced.

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• It is expensive and it still has to answer concerns about long-term risk, but carbon capture and storage looks set to play a critical role in helping countries meet their Paris climate commitments.

US 'TO PRESSURE PARIS FOR LNG OFFTAKE DEAL': PRESS

Washington is seeking to convince Paris to sign up to the NextDecade LNG offtake agreement despite the French objections to locking in methane, according to Politico.

• The publication reported earlier this month that French utility Engie was backing away from the $7bn deal under pressure from the government, which is a 24% shareholder.

• Several sources on both sides of the Atlantic said the French government's concern was mainly the "life cycle methane content" of US natural gas flowing out of West Texas and New Mexico, the region where NextDecade would obtain the supplies to be exported.

CANADA’S CENOVUS, HUSKY IN C$24BN MERGER

Canadian integrated oil and gas producers Cenovus Energy and Husky Energy said October 25 they would combine in an all-stock transaction valued at C$23.6bn (US$18bn), inclusive of debt.

• Cenovus and Husky are both primarily involved in the western Canadian crude oil and bitumen sectors, and the combined company will rank as the third largest in Canada.

• The door giving Canada’s natural gas sector access to new capital may not be closed as firmly as some have suggested, according to Haywood Capital Markets’ Q4/20 commodity price update released October 21.

TOTAL IN TALKS FOR IRAQI GAS PROJECTS

France's Total is in talks to invest in two gas developments, one west of Baghdad and in the other near the southern city of Basra, the Iraqi oil ministry reported on October 24. The ministry did not divulge any other details on the projects.

• The International Energy Agency in May said that one solution to Iraq's energy needs would be to flare much less gas and use it for power generation, but short-termism meant that all resources available were directed at oil production without capturing the associated gas.

• Iraq imports gas from Iran for power generation.

BP STARTS UP EGYPTIAN FIELD

BP announced the start-up of the Qattameya gas field at Egypt's offshore North Damietta concession.

• Egyptian gas production began rising again in 2017 after years of decline, supported by the launch of the 30-trillion ft3 Zohr field by Italy's Eni.

• Since then, BP, Eni and others have discovered a number of other offshore fields that could potentially drive growth further - most recently one at the Abu Madi West lease in the Nile Delta. Eni and BP brought on stream the Baltim South West field in September last year.

ROSNEFT TARGETS 50MN MT/YR OF ARCTIC LNG SUPPLY: PRESS

Russian state oil giant Rosneft plans to ship 35-50mn metric tons/yr of LNG from an export terminal it plans to build at Sever Bay on the Arctic Taymyr peninsula, its CEO Igor Sechin said at a forum on October 23, according to Russia's Kommersant newspaper.

• The company has been trying to expand its gas reserves in the Russian Arctic to help justify an LNG project.