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Producción y mercados energéticos 24/01/19

Latest Energy News

24 January 2019

TOP STORY: LNG imports surged in 2018 in China and South Korea, dipped in Japan According to provisional data, LNG imports surged in 2018 in China (+38%) and South Korea (+17%), while Japanese LNG imports slightly decreased (-0.9%). Japan remained the world’s largest LNG importer in 2018, followed by China and South Korea. In Japan, domestic power utilities are progressively restarting nuclear reactors that had been shut in the wake of the Fukushima atomic disaster in 2011, boosting nuclear power generation and reducing the need for LNG imports.. Despite the drop in LNG import volumes, the LNG import bill reached US$43bn in 2018, as import costs rose by 21%. Since China is still implementing policies to progressively phase out coal-fired power generation and to replace coal with gas for power generation and residential heating purposes, LNG imports continued to rise in 2018. China became the world’s second largest LNG importer in 2017, overtaking South Korea. The trend is likely to continue and China could overtake Japan and become the world’s largest LNG importer. Finally, South Korea is turning away from nuclear to the advantage of gas and renewable power generation and will continue to import massive amounts of LNG. In 2018, Qatar remained the dominant source of South Korean imports with 14.2 Mt (+23%), followed by Australia (7.9 Mt), the United States (4.6 Mt) and Oman (4.3 Mt). The average LNG import costs also rose by 26.5% in 2018.

Companies CNOOC boosts upstream oil and gas spendings for 2019 to US$12bn (China) State-held Chinese offshore oil and gas producer CNOOC has outlined plans to invest between CNY70bn to CNY80bn (approximately US$10.3bn – US$11.8bn) on exploration and production activities, which is much higher than the CNY63bn (US$9.3bn) in capital spending set aside for 2018. Read more Energy Markets Kazakhstan’s oil production rose by 4.8% in 2018 According to preliminary data released by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy, the domestic crude oil and condensate production increased by 4.8% in 2018 to about 1.8 mb/d, of which +6.2% for crude oil only. Meanwhile, the domestic gas production declined by 0.9%. Read more Azerbaijan set to boost gas shipments via TANAP pipeline in 2019 The Azerbaijan government has unveiled plans to double the volume of gas shipments transported via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) gas interconnector from the current 1 bcm/year to 2 bcm/year in 2019. The pipeline ships natural gas from the Shah Deniz 2 gas field in Azerbaijan and started commercial delivery of natural gas in July 2018. Read more Chinese raw coal production grew by 5.2% to 3.5 Gt in 2018 According to preliminary data unveiled by the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China’s 2018 raw coal production rose by 5.2% to nearly 3,550 Mt. In December 2018, coal production increased by 2.1% in December 2018 (over 320 Mt). This is the highest level in the last three years as major domestic producers opened up new mines and ramped up production amid rising winter demand. Read more Infrastructure & Investments French government launches 300 MW solar tender in Fessenheim The French Ministry for the Ecological and Solidary Transition has launched a tender for 300 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects as part of the reconversion programme of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant that is due to be decommissioned by 2022 at the latest. Read more EU invests a further €800m for key European energy infrastructure European Union (EU) Member states have approved a proposal submitted earlier by the European Commission, which supports investments of almost €800m in key European energy infrastructure projects with major cross-border benefits. The funds will be provided by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the European support programme for trans-European infrastructure. Read more Investment estimates for Egypt’s New Alamein refining project hit US$8.5bn State-held Egyptian Petrochemicals Holding Company (ECHEM) is considering investing US$8.5bn in the construction of a new refining and petrochemical project in the New El Alamein district near El Hamra (Egypt). The refining and petrochemical complex will have a production capacity of 3.4 Mt/year, including a refining capacity of 1.9 Mt/year for various oil products such as butane, kerosene,… Read more