LNG Thread

[Tiresais]

That'd be good, great to also branch out and server non-US markets in teh current climate

[ribbit]

Seems a while back, US was supposed to be a market for T&T LNG.

How exposed is T&T to US becoming an exporter of LNG?

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/24/in-a-first-cheniere-to-export-us-liquefied-natural-gas.html

[mukumsplau]

Seems a while back, US was supposed to be a market for T&T LNG.

How exposed is T&T to US becoming an exporter of LNG?

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/24/in-a-first-cheniere-to-export-us-liquefied-natural-gas.html

well we've got the edge over them in terms of experience, track record, market savvy etc....under all d bruhaha america's LNG still in the fledgling stages...we still export LNG to them...very small amounts relative to elsewhere....and its just to cool their LNG plants

[Flex]

Repsol offers $US.5m for NGC platforms.
By Rhondor Dowlat (Guardian).

Spanish energy giant Repsol E&P T&T Limited has offered a US$.5 million bid for two of the National Gas Company (NGC) of T&T Limited’s offshore fields, as the company seeks to offload assets with the energy sector continuing to struggle due to low prices on the international markets.

The two companies are expected to sign off on a deal at the end of this month which would see Repsol purchasing NGC’s platform in the Teak and Poui fields for US$.25 million each—a total purchase of US$.5 million, or approximately TT$3 million.

However, contacted for an immediate comment on the deal yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley declined, saying: “No, I am sorry, I am not briefed on that matter at this time.”

Also contacted yesterday, former minister of energy Kevin Ramnarine said he also did not know of such a deal when he was in office, although the initial contact between the companies took place under the People’s Partnership government.

According to a document obtained by the T&T Guardian, by letter dated April 22, 2015, Repsol submitted a proposal to NGC for the purchase of assets after learning of its intention to feel them off. Repsol followed this up with a letter outlining its condition for the sale of the assets on May 26, 2015 and both parties executed a confidentiality agreement on September 16, 2015, in order to facilitate an evaluation by Repsol relating to the integrity if the assets.

By letter dated September 25, 2015, Repsol requested permission to conduct a due diligence exercise relating to the proposed acquisition.

A Heads of Terms agreement was entered on December 30, 2015 and will remain in effect until March 31, 2016. This document was signed for and on behalf of NGC’s acting president Maria Thorne and Repsol’s business adviser Allan Russell on December 30, 2015.

According to the document received by the T&T Guardian, NGC had been providing Repsol with gas lift compression services from the two platforms in the Teak and Poui offshore fields pursuant to the Third Amendment to the Teak Compression Services Agreement and the Poui Compression Services Agreement,dated July 21, 2015.

But when the arrangement ended on December 31, NGC moved to get rid of the platforms and related equipment, including compression gear, all specialised test equipment, tools, hardware and related software.

The T&T Guardian understands that both parties agreed to a purchase price of US$.25 million (approximately TT$1.7 million) a platform, including all equipment, and, in accordance with the terms and conditions of sale, will sign off on the purchases and wrap up the deal on April 1, 2016.

Until the purchase is completed, NGC agreed to operate their platform subject to Repsol’s approval and limit the number of offshore personnel used in those operations.

Under the agreement, Repsol is also not guaranteeing that there will be no job cuts.

“Repsol shall have the right but not the obligation to choose from the list of NGC offshore personnel for possible contracting purposes. Additionally, Repsol has no obligation to retain any of the NGC existing personnel associated with the operation and maintenance of the asset,” the Heads of Terms stated.

Contacted for comment yesterday, Repsol’s business adviser and assets manager, Allan Russell, said the topic was too sensitive in nature to give an official comment.

Minister of Energy Nicole Olivierre also did not want to say much when contacted. However, she noted that compression of low pressure gas is an important part of the country’s oil operations and ensuring the service is provided and continued was “important to both parties.”

Asked if NGC was selling the platforms because it was cash strapped and why to Repsol, Olivierre replied: “I would not really say that NGC is cash-strapped, but that NGC is… well you know, I really don’t want to comment further on this.”

Olivierre then ended the call. NGC acting president Maria Thorne asked that questions be sent to her via her email but up to last night she had not responded.

Conditions of NGC/Repsol Sale

7.4 In order to achieve a smooth and efficient transfer of the assets, during the interim period NGC shall designate two of its land-based personnel to provide planning and logistical support as may be required by Repsol.

7.5 Repsol shall have the right to conduct a due diligence, including but not limited to financial, commercial and legal records related to the compression business of NGC.

7.6 (a) Repsol shall have the right but not the obligation to continue with any of NGC’s existing contracts related to compression operations in the Teak and Poui offshore fields. As and from the January 1 2016.

Repsol shall have absolute discretion to restrict or cancel the rendering of any planned or existing contracts or services of NGC and use its own contracts for the execution of any works related to compression operations.

(b) Where a Repsol contractor is required to execute works related to compression operations on the assets in accordance with this sub-clause 7.6, Repsol shall:

(i) Indemnify and hold NGC harmless from and against any loss, liability (including reasonable legal expenses) or damage to any person or property whatsoever where such loss, liability or damage is caused by, results from or arises out of the performance of such works save and except to the extent of NGC’s negligence or wilful misconduct;

(ii) indemnify and hold NGC harmless from and against all claims, suits, actions and demands for any loss, injury, damage or liability (including reasonable legal fees and expenses) to any person or property whatsoever caused by, resulting from or arising out of the performance of the works save and except to the extent of the negligence or willful misconduct of NGC.

7.7 Repsol shall have the right to purchase any spares contained in NGC’s warehouse at a price to be agreed between the parties.

7.8 The parties shall use reasonable endeavors to negotiate an agreement to facilitate the supply of high pressure gas lift compression services in the Teak, Samaan and Poui offshore fields.

7.9 Repsol shall handle all operational emergencies on the NGC gas transmission system located on the assets as requested by NGC subject to the execution by the parties of an indemnity agreement. NGC shall provide suitable training to Repsol on procedures for the safe opening and/or closing of the valves on the NGC gas transmission system.

7.10 NGC shall provide to Repsol all available technical and operational information required for the safe and efficient operation of the assets.

7.11 Subject to the competition of the due diligence referred to in Clause 3 above, decommissioning liabilities will be transferred to the TSP owners upon signing of the SPA.

[Flex]

Khan: T&T gets US $80m bonus from Shell contracts
BY JULIEN NEAVES (NEWSDAY).

ENERGY Minister Franklin Khan said the ministry received a signature bonus of US $80 million on signing new production sharing contracts (PSCs) with Shell.

He was responding to a question in the Senate Wednesday on the energy agreement between Shell TT and the Government.

Khan said the agreement covers Shell’s production-sharing contracts for its East Coast Marine Area (ECMA) comprising Block 5a, Block 6, Block E and Block 5c and in the North Coast Marine Area (NCMA) 2, its Colibri project comprising NCMA 4 and Block 22. He reported the commercial terms of the LNG marketing arrangements for gas from these blocks were improved and the terms of the ECMA PSCs Block 5a, Block 6 and Block E have been extended to 2030 and NCMA 1 to 2035.

“The quantum of the enhanced revenue accruing to Government will be dependent on the global market for LNG and will be realised over the period 2019 to 2022.”

He explained the pricing regime for LNG will be based on one-third Brent, one-third JKM and one-third NBP, which is superior to existing regimes that is Henry Hub and the Spanish market, and therefore will be an improved return to Government. Khan reported that Shell is projected to spend in excess of US $1 billion in development works over the period 2019-2021.

“These works are geared to maintain production in its ECMA blocks and NCMA 1, and in bringing on stream new production from its Colibri project and Block 5c.” He said first gas from Block 5c is projected for 2021 and from the Colibri project in 2022.

[Flex]

PPGPL acquires US company.
T&T Guardian Reports.

Phoenix Park Gas Proces­sors Ltd (PPG­PL) through its whol­ly owned US sub­sidiary, Phoenix Park En­er­gy Mar­ket­ing LLC has ac­quired the NGL mar­ket­ing as­sets of Twin Ea­gle Liq­uids Mar­ket­ing LLC.

Twin Ea­gle Liq­uids Mar­ket­ing LLC is a com­pa­ny based in Hous­ton, Texas, USA and is en­gaged in the busi­ness of mar­ket­ing, trad­ing and trans­porta­tion of nat­ur­al gas liq­uids in Cana­da, USA and Mex­i­co via rail, the com­pa­ny ex­plained in a state­ment yes­ter­day.

Ac­cord­ing to Pres­i­dent Do­minic Ram­per­sad, “Through this ac­qui­si­tion, we will broad­en our busi­ness plat­form and de­liv­er more val­ue to our share­hold­ers and cus­tomers as we en­hance our com­pet­i­tive­ness in the glob­al mar­ket­place.”

PPG­PL, the on­ly nat­ur­al gas liq­uids (NGLs) hub in the re­gion, is in­volved in nat­ur­al gas pro­cess­ing, frac­tion­at­ing, ag­gre­ga­tion and NGLs mar­ket­ing. Its new busi­ness unit, Phoenix Park En­er­gy Mar­ket­ing LLC will be fo­cused on the mar­ket­ing of NGLs in North Amer­i­ca.

The com­pa­ny not­ed that this lat­est de­vel­op­ment is aligned to its strat­e­gy to grow the busi­ness in­ter­na­tion­al­ly along the en­er­gy val­ue chain.

“It is in fact the com­pa­ny’s first ma­jor step to­wards re­al­is­ing its vi­sion to be a recog­nised glob­al leader in the de­vel­op­ment of en­er­gy re­lat­ed busi­ness­es,” the com­pa­ny said.

PPG­PL not­ed that over the past three years it has tak­en very de­lib­er­ate steps to re­alise this vi­sion, in­clud­ing ex­pand­ing its rev­enue streams to in­clude con­den­sate pro­cess­ing and phys­i­cal prod­uct trad­ing.

“With this ac­qui­si­tion, PPG­PL has now added a new source of rev­enue to its ex­ist­ing port­fo­lio there­by fur­ther di­ver­si­fy­ing its busi­ness and pro­vid­ing a fo­cal point for an ex­pan­sion thrust in the North Amer­i­can nat­ur­al gas mar­ket,” the com­pa­ny not­ed.

It al­so said that ex­pan­sion of PPG­PL in­to the US mid­stream en­er­gy mar­ket spells good news for its share­hold­ers, es­pe­cial­ly TTNGL, which is trad­ed on the Trinidad and To­ba­go stock ex­change.

“The com­pa­ny’s bold step out­side Trinidad and To­ba­go comes at a time when the North Amer­i­can in­dus­try is ex­pand­ing at a rapid rate,” the com­pa­ny added.

PPG­PL’s pres­i­dent fur­ther states, “This is a new chap­ter for the com­pa­ny and its share­hold­ers as we open new doors and ex­port our ex­per­tise, while es­tab­lish­ing a pres­ence in oth­er ter­ri­to­ries. Our peo­ple are com­mit­ted to our vi­sion and to re­al­is­ing im­proved re­turns to share­hold­ers, and added val­ue for the NGC Group of Com­pa­nies and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

PPG­PL will con­tin­ue to be fo­cused on gas pro­cess­ing and wa­ter borne NGLs trad­ing re­gion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, while its new sub­sidiary Phoenix Park En­er­gy Mar­ket­ing LLC will be en­gaged in the busi­ness of mar­ket­ing, trad­ing and trans­porta­tion of nat­ur­al gas liq­uids via rail in Cana­da, USA and Mex­i­co, as they have done pre­vi­ous­ly.