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Producción y mercados energéticos 11/03/19

Latest Energy News

11 March 2019

TOP STORY: The Netherlands to close Hemweg coal-fired power plant by 2020 The Dutch government has announced plans to retire Nuon’s 650 MW Hemweg-8 hard coal-fired unit by the end of 2019, five years earlier than originally planned. The decision comes in the wake of the 2018 court order instructing the government to make sure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are reduced by at least 25% by the end of 2020 from 1990 levels. In May 2018, the government confirmed plans to shut down the country’s remaining five coal-fired power plants by 2030 at the latest. Phasing out coal-fired power plants will be the first step towards achieving the Netherlands’ target to cut GHG emissions by 25% cut by 2020 and by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 CO2 levels. The two oldest plants, namely Nuon’s 650 MW Hemweg-8 hard coal-fired unit and RWE’s 600 MW Amercentrale coal-fired power plant that have been in operation since 1994, will be the first to be shut down, by 2020 and 2024, respectively. The three most recent units, namely RWE’s two-unit 1,560 MW Eemshaven power plant and Uniper’s 1,100 MW Maasvlakte-3 unit – commissioned in 2015 and 2016 – will have to stop operations by the end of 2029. RWE is challenging the coal phase-out policy, claiming that it invested €3.2bn in its newest plants at the request of the government, which will not offer any compensation for the closure.

Policy & Regulatory South Korea clears use of biofuel oil for power generation purposes The South Korean government will allow domestic electricity utilities to use liquid biofuels as an alternative fuel oil source for power generation purposes as part of its policy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and encourage the usage of renewable energy sources. Even though the new regulation came into force in January 2019,… Read more Energy Markets Petronas’ LNG sales volume dipped by 6% in 2018 (Malaysia) Malaysian state-run oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) has reported a significant leap in revenue (+12%) for 2018 due to higher average realised prices for all its products. However, the total LNG sales volumes decreased by 6% (1.8 Mt) throughout the year to 28..9 Mt, mainly due to the lower volumes from LNG plants. Read more Energy Prices & Taxes South African regulator grants Eskom 13.8% power tariff hike for 2019 The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), which is in charge of setting power prices and tariffs for the country’s state-run power utility Eskom, has finished the series of nationwide public hearings on the future electricity tariffs and granted Eskom allowable revenue of ZAR206bn (US$14bn) for the 2019-2020 period. Read more Forecasts Power utility Taipower will receive first LNG imports from 2023 (Taiwan) Taiwanese state-run power and gas utility Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) expects to receive its first LNG imports by 2023 as it has signed two non-binding deals recently. This would also mean that the state-held petroleum, natural gas, and gasoline company CPC Corporation would lose its status as Taiwan’s sole LNG importer. Read more Infrastructure & Investments NextDecade signs lease for Rio Grande LNG export project (US) US-based project company NextDecade has agreed to sign a lease agreement with the Brownsville Navigation District (BND) for the 27 Mt/year (36.5 bcm/year) Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville, South Texas (United States). An initial terms of 30 years has been approved with two options to renew and extend the term of the lease for periods of 10 years each. Read more Three groups bid to build TurkStream gas pipeline extension (Bulgaria) Three consortiums have submitted bids in the €1.4bn tender regarding the construction of a new 484 km long pipeline which will ship Russian natural gas across Bulgaria from its southern border with Turkey to its western border with Serbia. The project will secure connection to Gazprom’s TurkStream gas interconnection project (31.5 bcm/year pipeline,… Read more Russia intends to reduce Kaliningrad’s reliance on EU power grid Russian state-held power utility Inter RAO has commissioned the 455 MW Pregolsky gas-fired power project worth in Kaliningrad (Russia). The plant is part of a RUB100bn (US$1..6bn) project to increase power generation capacity by 1 GW to be completed in 2021. It is part of a strategy to reduce the region’s dependency on the EU power grid. Read more