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Producción y mercados energéticos 12/03/19

Latest Energy News

12 March 2019

TOP STORY: UK oil and gas production grew by 4% in 2018 According to the United Kingdom oil and gas regulator OGA (Oil and Gas Authority), the domestic hydrocarbon production increased by more than 4% in 2018, averaging 1.7 mboe/d. More specifically, nationwide oil production alone rose by 8.9% in 2018 to achieve 1.1 mb/d, the highest domestic oil production rate since 2011. The main drivers behind this increase entail the development of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects and the coming on stream of new fields. Meanwhile, gas production dipped by 3.5% to 0.6 mboe/d mainly because a drop of the capital expenditure in the sector. The OGA predicts domestic oil and gas production to decrease gradually by 2024 to reach about 0.8 mboe/d and 0.5 mboe/d, respectively. After 2024, they are both assumed to decline at the average rate of 5%/year. The future rates of production will hang on several factors such as the level of investment and the success of further exploration programmes.

Companies Petrobras to cut operational costs by US$8.1bn in 2019-2023 (Brazil) Brazilian state-run oil and gas company Petrobras has announced plans to cut its operational expenditure (OPEX) by US$8.1bn in the period from 2019 through 2023 in order to improve its financial situation. Besides, it also confirms the expansion of its asset divestment programme, which is set to entail more mature and shallow waters oil and gas fields for the upstream part. Read more Policy & Regulatory India to change legislation to support large hydropower projects The Indian government has approved the introduction of a new policy meant to promote the hydropower sector and declared that large hydropower projects will now be considered as a renewable energy source part of the non-solar renewable purchase obligation (RPO). Projects will be commissioned after the notification of these measures will be included in the non-solar RPO. Read more Forecasts US future power generation additions will be mostly solar and gas According to preliminary statistics released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), 31..3 GW of power generation capacity were added in the United States in 2018 while 18.7 GW of capacity were retired. The additions consisted primarily of gas-fired plants (62%), onshore wind (21%) and solar PV (16%). The remaining 2% entailed mostly hydroelectric and battery storage capacity. Read more European LNG imports from the US surged since July 2018 The European Union (EU) and the United States (US) report that their joint strategic cooperation in the LNG sector has resulted in a surge of the EU’s fuel imports (+180% since July 2018) to reach 7.9 bcm between July 2018 and early March 2019. The US are currently the EU’s third largest supplier of LNG with a 12% market share, up from 2% before July 2018. Moreover,… Read more Infrastructure & Investments Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass-5 LNG has been fully commissioned (US) The fifth train of the Sabine Pass II liquefaction and export terminal project (referred to as Sabine Pass II-5) in Cameron Parish, Louisiana (United States) has reached substantial completion and is now fully commissioned. The 27 Mt/year Sabine Pass project will accommodate up to six LNG trains capable of processing over 4.5 Mt/year of LNG. Read more ScottishPower (Iberdrola) pledges to build new offshore wind parks (UK) Iberdrola’s British affiliate ScottishPower has pledged to actively pursue the development of future offshore wind projects in England and Scotland as part of a £6bn (about €7bn) investment plan. The company aims at building more wind parks on top of the ones it already has under development such as the 714 MW East Anglia One project, which is slated for commissioning in 2020. Read more FirstGen receives government approval for Batangas LNG (Philippines) Japanese utility Tokyo Gas and the Philippines-based company FirstGen Corporation have obtained a notice to proceed (NTP) for the construction and operation of a new 5 Mt/year (6.75 bcm/year) LNG import and regasification terminal south of Manila (Philippines). The partners may now go forward with the US$2bn project, which is slated to come onstream by 2024. Read more