Equinor ASA expects competition for LNG with Asia and weather to be the largest drivers of European natural gas prices as markets continue to shift, creating a floor for global benchmarks. After another mild winter helped Europe exit its second heating season without major Russian pipeline gas supplies and sizable storage inventories, CFO Torgrim Reitan told analysts during the first quarter earnings call that global prices are “stabilizing a little bit.”  While global liquefied natural gas prices still remain elevated compared to pre-2022 levels, that stability could be inspiring some Eu ..read more

Argentina’s vast natural gas resources would only be fully developed with an LNG export facility, according to experts who spoke at a recent energy conference. “Clearly we think we need to develop the regional market,” said Pampa Energía’s director of commercialization and midstream, Santiago Patrón. The executive at one of Argentina’s top natural gas producers spoke recently at the South America Energy Summit in Santiago, Chile. “But we have excellent resources and obviously the only way to fully develop those resources is through an LNG project. To be competitive worldwide we need large scal ..read more

ExxonMobil will add more natural gas – including LNG – into the portfolio, both in the United States and overseas, as long as they are “advantaged investment opportunities,” according to CEO Darren Woods. During the quarterly conference call on Friday, Woods was asked whether more liquefied natural gas assets would be added to the portfolio in the near term.  Golden Pass LNG on the Texas coast, a joint venture with QatarEnergy, is set to begin initial service in 2025. The company also is a stakeholder in QatarEnergy’s North Field LNG expansion. Plans also are in the works to build a natur ..read more

NO. 1: A gas leak at the Hammerfest LNG export terminal in Norway that occurred during maintenance has shut the plant down until Friday. The facility, which is operated by Equinor ASA was evacuated Tuesday, and the leak has since been stopped. The cause is under investigation. Hammerfest is Europe’s only large-scale export terminal. It liquefies gas from the Snohvit field in the Barents Sea.  European and Asian natural gas prices edged higher Thursday amid a supply squeeze. Other Norwegian gas maintenance was limiting flows to Europe, while  the broader market continues to watch the ..read more

Click here to listen to the latest episode of NGI’s Hub & Flow podcast. Neil Chatterjee, a former FERC chairman and commissioner, joins NGI’s Jamison Cocklin, managing editor of LNG, to discuss the political and regulatory aspects of President Biden’s pause on authorizing new liquefied natural gas export projects. Chatterjee, an environmental and energy attorney at Hogan Lovells in Washington, DC, discusses the legality of the pause. He also discusses the U.S. LNG review process and the deadlock at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that is slowing down projects that include Venture ..read more

The world’s energy companies are becoming more pragmatic in their approach to reaching net-zero emissions and Baker Hughes Co.’s customers plan to boost their natural gas exposure in the coming years, CEO Lorenzo Simonelli said.  It is “becoming clearer just how complex the undertaking is for the transition of the world’s energy ecosystem,” Simonelli said during the first quarter conference call. The “slower-than-expected expansion of renewable energy capacity” has led to “record levels of coal demand. Consequently, we are seeing more pragmatism toward a pathway to decarbonization… “There ..read more

Freeport LNG Development LP has reported another outage of its third train, currently the only one not under extensive maintenance at its Texas terminal, days after production appeared to resume, according to pipeline data and regulatory filings. The firm told Texas environmental regulators the unit experienced a system trip on Tuesday afternoon that lasted until midday Wednesday, requiring flaring. This time, the issue was ascribed to a problem with the main cryogenic heat exchanger. “The plant operators managed the cooldown and restart of Train 3 as efficiently as possible to minimize flarin ..read more

After selling off sharply in the previous session, natural gas futures remained under pressure early Thursday as traders prepared to digest a potential surplus-expanding government inventory report.  The May Nymex contract was off 0.4 cents to $1.649/MMBtu at around 8:30 a.m. ET. June was down 2.6 cents to $1.953. The market early Thursday was expecting the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to reveal a larger-than-average springtime injection in the low 80s Bcf for the week ending April 19. A Reuters survey of 11 analysts produced a median 83 Bcf injection, with estimates rangi ..read more

The outlook for added feed gas demand in the coming months is beginning to firm, portending a possible tight supply balance next year. Earlier in the week, Cheniere Energy Inc. asked FERC for permission to connect the first train of its Stage 3 expansion at Corpus Christi to power and gave an update of its progress to start the commissioning progress. The company will have to file separate requests for approval before being able to introduce gas to the Texas project, but the connection of power facilities is typically a sign that systems may be ready for broader testing. In the U.S. Energy Inf ..read more

The European Union’s (EU) LNG demand is likely to peak this year and buyers on the continent are likely to be over-contracted by 2030 as efforts to displace Russian natural gas over the last two years have been successful, according to the bloc’s energy watchdog.  Since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and cut off gas exports to most of Europe, the EU has added over 50 billion cubic meters (1.8 Tcf) of liquefied natural gas regasification capacity to import more of the super-chilled fuel. In a report released last week, the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators ..read more