Wednesday, January 17, 2018

First step toward EU funding to aid gas imports - CYPRUS MAIL

January 17 2018

Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis: funding 'a decisive step towards the import of LNG for power generation'

Cyprus has been approved for preliminary EU funding of €101m to construct infrastructure for the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for power generation, Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said on Wednesday.

The approval is a response to Cyprus’ application seeking assistance in importing LNG to decrease the island’s reliance on imported oil for producing electricity ahead of the extraction of its own gas.

The approved amount, Lakkotrypis said, is around 40 per cent of the estimated cost.

The proposal, he said, was jointly submitted to key EU funding instrument Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), by the energy and transport ministries.

The amount is pending the approval of the other member states.

The preliminary approval of the €101m, Lakkotrypis said, “is a decisive step towards the import of LNG for power generation”.

EastMed pipeline provides viable route for stranded gas in Mediterranean - OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY / GLOBAL DATA ENERGY

Development NPV10 with Varying Gas Price / Source: Upstream Analytics © GlobalData
17 JANUARY 2018

The proposed Eastern Mediterranean Natural Gas (EastMed) pipeline spans 1,300 kilometers (km) (808 miles (mi)) offshore and 600 km (373 mi) onshore, starts in Israel and has exit points in Cyprus, Crete and Greece.

The pipeline, proposed by IGI Poseidon, a 50:50 joint venture by DEPA and Edison, has a planned capacity of 1.2 to 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd). Both companies benefit from additional gas volumes to distribute to end-users.

Greece gets interest for new offshore oil and gas tenders: licensing body - REUTERS



JANUARY 17, 2018 / 1:28 PM / A DAY AGO

ATHENS, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Tenders for offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation west and south of Greece have attracted “strong interest” from companies exploring in the Mediterranean, the head of Greece’s oil and gas resources management company said on Wednesday.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Egypt’s role indispensible in developing east Med gas hub -Butler - ENTERPRISE /FINANCIAL TIMES / AL SHOROUK


Tuesday, 16 January 2018

Egypt can once again become an energy exporter and “build on its existing role as one of the most important trading hubs in the region, ideally placed to link western and eastern markets,” Nick Butler writes for The Financial Times. “Egypt’s opportunity is that it finds itself at the crossroads of the emerging international trade in natural gas,” Butler writes. The potential collaboration on natural gas export between Egypt, Cyprus, Israel, and even potentially from Lebanon leaves Turkey as the loser regionally after having “destroyed its opportunity to provide an export route for gas from Cyprus by trying to link trade to a settlement of the island’s longstanding territorial division.” Butler insists that Egypt’s role will be vital in any major development, saying “in the Middle East nothing is ever simple and there will many a slip before the new pattern of trade is in place. But if the eastern Mediterranean is to be developed, Egypt’s role as the new regional trading hub looks indispensable.”

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Gas supply changes in Turkey - NATURAL GAS WORLD / THE OXFORD INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY STUDIES


Jan 10, 2018 11:59:pmOIES | Gulmira Rzayeva

SUMMARY

The Turkish government is in the process of making significant structural changes in the country’s energy sector in attempts to lessen its dependence on current import and transmission infrastructure capacity which is constrained and cannot meet gas demand in peak periods.

The Turkish government is in the process of making significant structural changes in the country’s energy sector in attempts to lessen its dependence on current import and transmission infrastructure capacity which is constrained and cannot meet gas demand in peak periods. It intends to diversify supply sources and gas import types (both pipeline gas and LNG/FSRU) to ensure imports are available from a wider range of available sources on competitive terms, at the same time storing more gas in the country once downstream infrastructure capacity allows, to export the excess of gas in the future.

 Consequently, BOTAŞ expects its maximum daily gas supply capacity to almost double by 2023, from the current 252 mcm/d (including storage capacity) to 473 mcm/d as new projects come on stream. This will extend Turkey’s ability to import gas from various sources by eliminating technical constraints. By doing so, Turkey intends to ensure supply security during the peak demand seasons and to reduce its dependence on existing suppliers, allowing it room to manoeuvre between them and other new options. 

Turkey is also expanding capacity at its existing LNG receiving terminals and building new FSRUs, taking advantage of the fact that this method of importing natural gas is available in a flexible and near immediate manner. This will give BOTAŞ and private companies an advantage in meeting the growing demand in winter time, instead of having to increase annual pipeline contract quantities (ACQ) due to the application of “take or pay” clauses.