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Final investment decision (FID) has been taken for the 19.8 Mt/year Arctic LNG 2 project in northern Russia. The project’s partners are Novatek with a majority stake of 60%, Total, CNOOC, CNPC and Japan Arctic LNG holding with 10% stakes each.

The Arctic LNG 2 project will consist of three liquefaction trains of 6.6 Mt/year capacity each, with the first one expected to be commissioned in 2023, while units 2 and 3 are expected for commercial operation in 2024 and 2026, respectively. The liquefaction plant will be fed by output from the Utrenneye field in the hydrocarbon-rich Gydan peninsula in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District (Russia). Reserves are estimated at 1,150-2,000 bcm of gas and 60-105 Mt of liquids.

Total investment for development will be of US$21.3bn, which is considered low enough to enable it to compete with LNG from the United States and Canada. A consortium of TechnipFMC, Saipem and NIPIGAS (Russia) was awarded the contract on engineering, procurement and construction of the LNG plant (EPC contract), with the design and construction of gravity-based structures to be built by the Russian company SAREN, a joint venture of RHI Russia and Saipem. 

French oil company Total has suspended the construction of the 1,445 km Uganda-Tanzania crude oil pipeline, the so-called East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). The project would have required US$3.5bn in investment and depended on the closure of Total’s deal with Tullow Oil and Chinese CNOOC.

Norwegian petroleum company Equinor has launched a US$5bn buy-back programme to increase capital distribution and strengthen its dividend policy. The programme will be led until end-2022, starting with a US$1.5bn buyback to be concluded by February 2020 (with up to US$500m to be purchased in the market).

The government of Russia and India wish to increase their economic trade from the current US$11bn to US$30bn by 2025. The countries have signed multiple memoranda of understanding (MoU) for cooperation in different sectors including energy, defence and shipping. The countries have pledged to consider expanding cooperation in hydro and thermal power, energy efficiency, desi…

The government of Scotland has annouced a Green Investment Portfolio (GIP) worth £3bn (€3.3bn) to harness power from the Scottish National Investment Bank to attract green finance over the next three years. The government will make a call for projects in November 2019.  …

China has developed 16 more high power reactors since 2016, moving closer to its objective to generate 58 GW from its nuclear plants by the end of 2020, according to a white paper titled “Nuclear Safety in China”, by the National Nuclear Safety Administration. …

Recently 1.1 GW of new solar PV projects were annouced in Poland. NeoInvestments and China Sinogy Electric Engineering have annouced plans to build a 600 MW solar PV power plant in Przykona (Poland) to be operational by 2021.

Spain based PV developer Powertis is creating a 765 MW photovoltaic solar portfolio in the States of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, in Brazil. The portfolio consists of one project of 495 MW and three projects of 90 MW each, for a total investment of approximately BRL 2,500 m (US$ 611m).. …