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Producción y mercados energéticos 18/01/19

Latest Energy News

18 January 2019

TOP STORY: Hitachi suspends Wylfa Newydd nuclear plant project in the UK Japanese conglomerate Hitachi has decided to scrap the £16bn (€18bn) Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant project in Anglesey, in North Wales (United Kingdom) due to economic reasons. The company has not been able to reach an agreement with the government over various options about how the British government might support the project including potential for equity and debt investments. Hitachi will post JPY300bn (£2.1bn or €2.4bn) of impairment loss and related expenses in fiscal 2018 from axing the project.. The Wylfa Newydd project would have comprised two Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWRs) with a combined capacity of 2,760 MWe on the site of the former 980 MWe Wylfa nuclear power plant. The project was endorsed by the British Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Environment Agency (EA) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) in December 2017. This is a major blow for the British nuclear industry and for the country’s energy policy. Hitachi becomes the second company in two months to scrap a major nuclear project after Toshiba decided to withdraw from the 3.8 GW Moorside nuclear power plant project in West Cumbria in November 2018. The abandonment of the Moorside and Wylfa Newydd projects means that the government has a huge gap to fill in a decade’s time after old nuclear and coal plants have closed. The two projects were slated to deliver about 15% of the UK’s power demand (7% each) and this announcement is likely to dent the development of new power plants in the country.

Companies Enel divests 540 MW of wind and solar capacity to CGN Energy (Brazil) Enel’s renewable energy subsidiary Enel Green Power Brasil (EGP Brasil) has agreed to sell three operational solar and wind projects to the Chinese company CGN Energy International (part of the China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN)) for a total consideration of BRL2.9bn (around US$775m). The transaction is expected to close at the end of the first quarter of 2019. Read more Policy & Regulatory Indonesia unveils ambitious residential gas connection programme The Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has outlined a new programme meant to develop the residential gas network. It aims at accelerating the yearly rate of new connections to the gas network, which currently ranges between 70,000 and 80,000 connections per year, to… Read more UK revealed as EU leader of fossil fuel subsidies in 2016 According to a report published by the European Commission, the United Kingdom (UK) is the largest funder of fossil fuels in the European Union and pumped about €12bn into fossil fuel support in 2016, followed by Germany, France, Italy and Spain. However, these countries invested more to support the development of renewable energies such as wind and solar than on fossil fuels like coal,… Read more Forecasts EIA predicts US natural gas production will reach record in 2020 According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), the current US natural gas market trends are expected to continue throughout 2019 and 2020. In particular, US domestic gas production is expected to rise from an estimated 83.3 bcf/d (858 bcm/year) in 2018 to approximately 90.2 bcf/d (929 bcm/year, +8.3%) in 2019 and 92.2 bcf/d (950 bcm/year, +2.2%) in 2020. Read more Infrastructure & Investments Egypt ready to commission power interconnection project with Sudan The Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy has announced that the 300 MW power interconnection project with Sudan is moving forward and is slated for activation in February 2019. All the pylons that will be used for the construction of the power line have been completed by the Indian construction firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T). Read more India approves Bharat Petroleum’s Numaligarh refinery expansion project Project company Numaligarh Refinery, a subsidiary of the Indian oil company Bharat Petroleum, has received clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs of India for development of the 120,500 bbl/d expansion project at the Numaligarh refinery in the Golaghat district of Assam (northeastern India). Once built,… Read more