News

From 11 - 21 July this year the Nord Stream 1 will undergo its annual inspection.  For this work, Gazprom, Nord Stream's operator, will stop transmitting gas through the line.  In past years these inspections went off without a hitch.  Not so in 2022.

Equinor, the diversified Norwegian concern that until several years ago was better known by its previous name, Statoil, and the German energy company Verbundnetzgas AG (VNG), have agreed to expand their cooperation in the gas sector to include new areas such as Low-CO2 Hydrogen, Low-CO2 Ammonia as well as the extraction, use and offshore storage of CO2 (CCU and CCS).

German Transmission System Operator Open Grid Europe (OGE) is lending a very big hand to the beleaguered people of Ukraine by providing three vehicles to help meet the needs of the regional military administration in its ongoing defensive war with Putin's Russia.

Against a backdrop of rising demand for natural gas across Europe (as well as a not irrational fear that all gas flows from Russia may be stop in the near future), Kinder Morgan, the American pipeline operator, has indicated that it intends to underwrite the expansion of the 689-km natural gas pipeline that brings natural gas from the Permian Basin in West Texas to export hubs around Houston.

The Group of Seven leaders, which met in Schloss Elmaus, Germany, agreed to explore a price cap on the Russian oil and pipeline gas to increase pressure on the Russian regime by slashing its revenues while reducing inflationary pressure in the west.

With an ample investment of 750 million euros from the Dutch government, Gasunie, the Netherland's gas network operator, has been tasked with managing and operating a national hydrogen transportation network.

Parts of the network are due to be completed by 2026.

Q1) What do you think about hydrogen usage in the heating sector (supply network, house installation, gas boilers)?

Finland intends to construct and operate a national hydrogen transmission network and link this infrastructure to other countries in the Baltic Sea region.

This advanced energy network will help reduce carbon emissions and bolster the long-term security of Finland's energy supplies following its decision to stop using Russian gas.

Neptune Energy, Rosewood Exploration Ltd, EBN Capital BV, and ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Netherlands Ltd last week, announced signing a cooperation agreement to progress L10 large-scale offshore carbon capture and storage project in the Dutch North Sea.

Vladimir Putin's ongoing invasion of Ukraine continues to roil global energy markets with particularly profound implications for the European gas sector.

The Sniffers, the global service provider in emission management and pipeline integrity programs, announces the appointment of Mr. Philippe Guldemont as Managing Director effective as of June 7th 2022.

Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), has warned Europe to prepare immediately for Russia to turn off all gas exports to the region this coming winter. He called on the Europeans to reduce demand and keep nuclear power plants open.

Turkey has laid the first pipes for the undersea pipeline network to transport onshore natural gas from the Black Sea to help slash the country’s dependence on energy imports. The pipelaying exercise which took place, which took place on Monday, June 13, via a video link, was witnessed by The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Italgas, on Wednesday, June 15, pledged it would invest $9 billion (€8.6 billion) by 2028 to modernize the gas grid in Greece and complete the upgrade of its local Italian network.

After months of deliberation and delays Lebanon will sign a final agreement to import yearly 650 million cubic meters of natural gas from Egypt to its energy poor country on 21 June 2022.  

Mention of the project was first made in these pages on 9 October 2021.

The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air has compiled a detailed dataset of pipeline and seaborne trade in Russian fossil fuels during the first 100 days of Putin's War of Aggression in Ukraine. It has found that exports of fossil based fuels soared to 93 billion euros in toto.  

Record-breaking gas prices and market volatility are the new norm.  Russian gas is increasingly being shunned and the EU has declared that it envisions a future without the Kremlin's primary bread-winner:  natural gas.

Researchers from the University of Stavanger operate heat and electricity-producing micro gas plant in South-West Norway using the first-ever gas turbines. The gas turbine also supplies hot water for heating the laboratory buildings in the surrounding area.

Pipeline closure and maintenance work at major oil fields have plunged Nigerian crude oil output to nearly three decades low in the recent weeks, industry source revealed on June 9.

Indigenous Australians are filing a lawsuit to stop Santos, Ltd., an Australian oil and gas exploration and production company, from developing the $3.6 billion Barossa gas project off the coast of northern Australia.  The traditional landowners said they were not consulted about the drilling activities.

The construction of the 580 kilometers pipeline in Western Australia has started. The $460 million worth of pipeline will transport natural gas from the Perth basin to resources projects in the state’s Goldfield.

Nigerian state oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has received a green light from the Nigerian government to go forward with the signing of a memorandum of understanding on the construction of a 5660-km gas pipeline via Morocco to Europe.

The first five months of this year witnessed Gazprom delivering substantially less gas to foreign destinations than in the previous year.  27.6 percent or 23.2 billion cubic meters of gas, to be precise.

At the same time, Gazprom transported more gas than previously to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline.  The concern did not mention any numbers.

"This is totally not acceptable," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said. “This is a kind of blackmailing from Putin. We continue to support Ukraine, and we distance ourselves from the crimes that Putin and Russia commit.”

Britain's gas grid will, from 2023, start accepting a blend of up to 20% hydrogen as part of the UK's effort to decarbonize its infrastructure.