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Producción y mercados energéticos 13/02/19

Latest Energy News

13 February 2019

TOP STORY: European offshore wind capacity rose by 2.6 GW in 2018 According to the European wind power association WindEurope, the European offshore wind capacity grew by 2.6 GW in 2018. This entails about 400 turbines spread across 18 projects. 85% of the new capacity was deployed in the United Kingdom (UK) (1.3 GW) and in Germany (969 MW). 309 MW were added in Belgium and 61 MW in Denmark, whereas 10 MW were retired in Sweden. At year end, the UK had the largest amount of offshore wind capacity in Europe, followed by Germany, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most of the new grid connections registered in 2018 were located in the North Sea (62%), followed by the Irish Sea (15%) and the Baltic Sea (14%). The North Sea alone currently accounts for approximately 70% of all offshore wind capacity in Europe. WindEurope also reports that the average size of offshore wind turbines continued to increase and stood at 6.8 MW in 2018, 15% up on the previous year. As for the project owners, Ørsted connected the largest amount of wind capacity in 2018, followed by E.ON, Global Infrastructure Partners, Equinor and Macquarie Capital. More than 60% of all the new capacity in 2018 was supplied by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE), while 1/3 was brought online by MHI Vestas Offshore Wind. In 2018, 12 new offshore wind projects reached the Final Investment Decision (FID) stage8, which corresponds to investments of €10.3bn and 4.2 GW of additional capacity expected to come onstream in the next decade. Half of these investments will be concentrated in the United Kingdom (€5.4bn, corresponding to 3 projects totalling 1,858 MW), followed by Belgium (€1.8bn for two projects totalling 706 MW), the Netherlands (€1.4bn, 732 MW project), and Denmark (€1.1bn for the 605 MW Kriegers Flak project).

Companies Oil giant Saudi Aramco will make moves to develop its overseas business Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil and gas company Saudi Aramco has announced plans to focus international oil and natural gas exploration. This represents a turning point for the energy giant, which has historically stuck to developing Saudi Arabia’s large low-cost reserves. The company will push into overseas exploration and production, i.e. upstream activities,…. Read more Mexican government plans to spend US$1.5bn to rescue oil company Pemex The Mexican government is working on a plan to save the state-run oil and gas company Pemex, which is struggling with more than US$100bn in debt and years of declining production. Besides, the company was also recently downgraded by the ratings firm Fitch, which means that it will need additional funds ranging between US$9bn/year and US$14bn/year to make it through. Read more Energy Markets The size of power blocks in US CCGT power plants is getting bigger According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average size of domestic gas-fired CCGT power units has increased significantly over the last decade, from 500 MW over the 2012-2014 period to an average of 820 MW in 2017. Not only have blocks increased in size but also gained in performance as the technology has continued to improve. Read more Forecasts Saudi Arabia will cut crude oil output to 9.8 mb/d in March 2019 The Saudi Arabian government has outlined plans to reduce the domestic crude oil production to approximately 9.8 mb/d in March 2019, which is over 0.5 mb/d below its pledged production level of 10.3 mb/d agreed under the latest global supply cutting agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producers. Besides, Saudi oil exports are slated to follow the same trend and will decrease to 6.9 mb/d. Read more Infrastructure & Investments German LNG terminal project signs new long-term capacity agreement Project company German LNG terminal, the developer of an LNG import terminal in Brunsbüttel, has signed another long-term commercial capacity agreement with an unnamed global LNG player. The two parties agreed on the commitment of a significant part of the terminal capacity, showing the strong market demand and interest in the project. In September 2018,… Read more Shell and MHPS will build Marlim Azul 565 MW CCGT power plant in Brazil Global oil and gas company Shell, the Japanese turbine provider Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) and the Brazilian investment holding Pátria Investimentos have decided to jointly invest US$700m to build and operate the 565 MW Marlim Azul gas-fired power project in Macaé in the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. They will set up a joint venture, in which Pátria will hold a 50.1% stake,… Read more Iberdrola orders Vestas turbines for 476 MW offshore wind park (Germany) Spanish energy group Iberdrola has selected MHI Vestas Offshore Wind as preferred turbine supplier for the 476 MW Baltic Eagle offshore wind project next to the island of Rügen in the German part of the Baltic Sea. Up to 52 units of the V174-9.5 MW offshore wind turbine will be deployed on the site. Their delivery and installation is currently scheduled for 2022-2023. Read more