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According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), US liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity is slated to reach 8.9 bcf/d (251 mcm/d or 91.7 bcm/year) by the end of 2019, making it the third largest in the world after Australia and Qatar. The current US export capacity (as of early December 2018) stands at 3.6 bcf/d (101 mcm/d or 37.2 bcm/year) and will near 4.9 bcf/d (50.6 bcm/year) at the end of the year, when two LNG trains will start operations.

Corpus Christi-1 and Sabine Pass-5 already entered the production phase in November 2018 (commissioning cargoes expected in a few weeks). Corpus Christi-2 is expected to be commissioned in 2019 along with Freeport LNG (two trains), Cameron-1, Cameron-2. The Elba Island LNG project (consisting of six trains) near Savannah, Georgia, is also scheduled to become fully operational by the end of 2019.

Consequently, US exports are predicted to ramp up along with the growing export capacity, from 24.9 mcm/d (9 bcm/year) in 2017 to 2.9 bcf/d (82 mcm/d or 29.9 bcm/year) in 2018 and 5.2 bcf/d (147 mcm/d or 53.6 bcm/year) in 2019.

Italian oil and gas company Eni will sell a 45% stake in its Nour North Sinai offshore exploratory concession in Egypt to BP and Mubadala Petroleum, which will acquire 25% and 20%, respectively. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed. After the completion of the deal, the asset will be owned as follows: Eni (40%), BP (25%), Mubadala (20%) and Egypt-based Tharwa Petroleum (15%).

Brazilian power holding company Energisa has completed the acquisition of a 87.61% stake in Eletrobras’ power distribution subsidiary Eletroacre (Eletrobras Distribuição Acre) and has announced plans to invest BRL228m (US$58m) in 2019 to support its development.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalised the latest rules for the 2019 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) programme. The total US renewable fuel volume requirement for 2019 is 3.3% higher than the 2018 mandate but 30% lower than the statutory volume standards set forth by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007). In recent years,…

The European Commission has adopted a decision imposing transmission system operator (TSO) TenneT to increase the electricity trading capacity between Western Denmark and Germany and to ensure a specific guaranteed capacity available at all times.

The French Environment and Energy Management Agency ADEME (Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie) has outlined a study regarding the possible trajectories for the evolution of the 2020-2060 French electricity mix. It compares the complete cost of several evolutions in the French electricity system between 2020 and 2060,…

Russian state-controlled nuclear group Rosatom has started to build the foundation plate of the reactor building for the Kursk II-2 nuclear unit on the site of the existing Kursk nuclear power plant in western Russia.

Indonesian state-run oil and gas company Pertamina has appointed South Korean engineering companies SK Engineering & Construction and Hyundai Engineering & Construction as engineering and construction contractors for the US$4bn Balikpapan refinery modernisation project, which is now slated to start in early 2019.