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Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development has started talks with the provincial government of the Ninh Thuan province of Vietnam about plans to build four gas-fired power plants with a total capacity of 6,000 MW and their associated LNG import installations (Ca Na LNG project). This project would make Vietnam a significant LNG importer and gas could replace some of the country’s existing coal-fired power generation assets.

Coal is expected to dominate Vietnam’s power sector over the next decade but gas is expected to slowly take over and many gas-fired plants have been unveiled recently. In January 2019, US-based oil and gas company ExxonMobil and the state-run hydrocarbon producer Petrovietnam announced the front-end engineering and design (FEED) for a 3,000 MW integrated gas-to-power project in central Vietnam. The final investment decision (FID) is targeted for 2020 based on executed gas sales agreements, regulatory approvals, governmental guarantees and economic competitiveness.

Japanese power utility TEPCO and oil and metal conglomerate JXTG Holdings are considering entering the hydrogen business, with plans to develop one of the world’s largest production sites by mid-2020. The JV would use TEPCO’s dormant thermal power plant in Tokyo to build and operate a hydrogen station on the site. The hydrogen plant would have a capacity of 600 Nm3/hour.

The Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy plans to issue a programme for overhauling the domestic gas sector by June 2019. It will be referred to as the “New Gas Market” and will be treated separately from the “Gas for Growth” scheme that was pursued under the previous administration.

The Hungarian government has struck an agreement with the Russian state-run gas giant Gazprom to buy and store its 2020 gas supplies earlier than usual to offset the risk of Russia failing to agree gas transit terms with Ukraine. Besides, Hungary expanded its domestic gas storage capacity from 5.6 bcm to 6.3 bcm to guarantee safe supply through 2020. In 2018,…

According to preliminary annual data released by the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), domestic nuclear power generation slightly increased in 2018 (+0.3%) and reached a total of 807 TWh in 2018, i.e. above the previous 2010 record.

Russian gas giant Gazprom has started the full-scale development of the Kharasaveyskoye gas field in the Yamal peninsula (Russia). This field is located north of Bovanenkovo – where two gas fields are already operating – and stretches over the peninsula and in the waters of the Kara Sea.

The government of Papua New Guinea expects to sign the gas agreement for the US$13bn Papua LNG project in early April 2019. It will set out the benefits of the project and the returns to stakeholders and then trigger the commencement of the front end engineering and design (FEED) phase.

Chinese state-run oil and gas company Petrochina has announced plans to invest about CNY300bn (approximately US$45bn) in 2019, up 17% from 2018, in an attempt to ramp up oil and gas production and boost its reserves to cope with the rising domestic demand. The group expects its 2019 crude oil production to reach 906 mbl and its gas production to rise to 3,811 bcf (108 bcm), i.e.