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French oil and gas company Total has begun crude oil production from the second floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit of the deep offshore Kaombo project on Block 32 in Angola. The project is made of two FPSO units, namely Kaombo Norte that started operations in July 2018 and Kaombo Sul, with a production capacity of 115,000 bbl/d each. With a combined 230,000 bbl/d production capacity, the Kaombo project will account for 15% of the current crude oil production in Angola. The associated gas will be shipped to the Angola LNG plant.

The entire Kaombo block includes an estimated 650 Mboe of reserves spread across six different fields: Gengibre, Gindungo, Caril, Canela, Mostarda and Louro. 59 wells will be connected to the two FPSO units. Total operates Block 32 with a 30% stake, along with Sonangol (30%), Sonangol Sinopec International (20%), Esso (15%) and Galp Energia (5%). Total’s production in Angola averaged 211,000 boe/d in 2018 from several areas: Blocks 17, 14 and 0, as well as Angola LNG.

Source: Total

China plans to accelerate the construction of its national emissions trading scheme (ETS) during the year and to make the first trade in 2020. China started with seven regional trading platforms in 2013 and launched a national ETS in December 2017 but had to work on legal and technical infrastructure construction before starting trading. …

According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), US refineries processed 17.3 mb/d in average throughout 2018, the highest annual average on record and the 5th consecutive year of record-high refininery runs. The domestic refinery utilisation rate averaged 93.2% in 2018, an increase of about 2.1% from 2017.  …

The state-held Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Italian oil and gas company Eni have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expedite gas production at two structures within maritime concession MN 41 in the Sabratha marine basin in Libya. Upon completion, the project’s capacity will increase by 760 mcf/d (approximately 21.5 mcm/d or 7.9 bcm/year).

Russian independent gas producer Novatek has signed a heads of agreement (HoA) with the global trading company Vitol for the supply of 1 Mt/year of LNG from Arctic LNG 2 over a 15-year period, which will be shipped on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

The Italian power transmission network operator (TSO) Terna estimates that Italy may require at least 6,000 MW of electricity storage capacity by 2030 to cope with the boom of intermittent renewable energy projects.

Chinese state-owned nuclear group China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) expects the nuclear project approval process to return to normal soon, since China suspended all conventional reactor approvals over the three past years until it cleared two new nuclear plants in early 2019.

US-based project company NextDecade has signed a 20-year sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for the delivery of 2 Mt/year of LNG from the 27 Mt/year (36.5 bcm/year) Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville, South Texas (United States) to the global oil and gas group Shell.