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Nebula Energy’s AG&P LNG and its consortium members have won a large-scale 20-year contract for LNG infrastructure development from a unit of Indonesia’s state power company PLN.

Besides AG&P Indonesia, other consortium members are Suasa Benua Sukses (SBS) and KPMOG, according to a statement by AG&P LNG.

The tender was awarded by PLN Energi Primer Indonesia (PLN EPI) to AG&P LNG for the co-development, ownership, and operations of LNG import terminal infrastructure and downstream logistics in seven locations within the Sulawesi-Maluku cluster in Indonesia.

The consortium will establish a joint venture with PLN EPI to collaborate on the design, financing, construction, ownership, and operations of all offshore and onshore infrastructure within the Sulawesi-Maluku cluster LNG terminals.

This infrastructure includes the LNG carrier, floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), and multiple onshore regasification sites, AG&P LNG said.

Also, the aim is to supply LNG and natural gas to seven power plants with a cumulative capacity of 1,510 MW.

The Sulawesi-Maluku, the largest power cluster in Indonesia, will have LNG import terminals of a total regasification capacity of 2.3 million metric tonnes per annum (mtpa) with multiple regasification sites across its seven locations.

PLN EPI will supply LNG from its portfolio.

The partners expect to start commissioning of the Sulawesi-Maluku LNG cluster in the first half of 2026.

AG&P LNG did not provide the financial details of the contract.

In January, US investment and asset management firm, Nebula Energy, purchased an 80 percent stake in AG&P LNG from Singapore-based AG&P.

With operational headquarters in the UAE, AG&P LNG now operates as an independent subsidiary of Nebula with key offices in UAE, Singapore, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

AG&P LNG has a “substantial growth pipeline” with a total of six LNG terminals in development with proposed capacity of 25 mtpa across several international growth projects, the firm said.

It recently purchased a 49 percent stake in the Cai Mep LNG import terminal from Vietnam’s Hai Linh.

The $500 million facility has a capacity of 3 mtpa, expandable to 6 mtpa, and is one of the only two existing LNG terminals in Vietnam.

Of its LNG terminal project portfolio, AG&P LNG last year launched the first LNG import and regasification terminal in the Philippines, called the Philippines LNG (PHLNG) import terminal located in Batangas Bay.

In May 2023, AG&P LNG commissioned the first import terminal in the Philippines following the arrival of the 137,500-cbm FSU Ish at the terminal’s jetty in Batangas Bay.

The LNG import facility features the converted FSU, which AG&P chartered from Adnoc for a period of up to 15 years.

Power companies Meralco PowerGen, Aboitiz Power, and San Miguel Global Power recently said they wlll buy this facility from a unit of AG&P LNG.

Source: Lngprime.com

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Russia has approved the sale of a 27.5 percent stake, previously owned by LNG giant Shell, in the new operator of the Sakhalin LNG plant to a unit of state-owned Gazprom, according to a government order dated March 23.

Under the order, Gazprom’s unit Sakhalin Project will buy the stake in Sakhalin Energy for 94.8 billion roubles ($1.02 billion).

Gazprom already has a 50 percent operating stake in the LNG terminal operator.

The government also declared null and void the order from April last year to approve Novatek’s purchase of Shell’s 27.5 percent stake in Sakhalin Energy LLC, but it did not provide further information on the reasons behind this decision.

LNG Prime invited Shell to comment on the new decision by the government.

“We cannot comment on matters relating to the Russian Federal Government’s Decree process,” a Shell spokesperson said.

“Shell reserves all its legal rights relating to its 27.5 percent (minus one share) interest in Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd (SEIC),” the spokesperson said.

It remains unclear whether the Russian government would allow the transfer of the sale funds to Shell.

Back in 2022, Shell said it will not take equity in the new Sakhalin LNG terminal operator.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in June 2022 allowing Russia to take charge of the Sakhalin-2 project due to Western sanctions imposed on Russia.

Sakhalin Energy LLC launched its operations on August 19, 2022 and the Sakhalin-2 LNG export terminal produced about 11.5 million tonnes of LNG in 2022.

Previous reports suggest the LNG termina produced more than 10 million tonnes of LNG in 2023.

Besides Shell’s 27.5 percent interest and Gazprom’s 50 percent operating stake in the original entity, Japan’s Mitsui owned 12.5 percent stake and compatriot Mitsubishi had 10 percent in the plant.

Mitsui and Mitsubishi won approvals in 2022 from the Russian government to take stakes in the new operator.

Source: Lngprime.com

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On Monday (25 March), the Council of the EU unanimously voted to adopt the revised Waste Shipment Regulation. This text, which now becomes EU law, aims to encourage more local waste management and greater recycling of raw materials, while exports of waste to non-EU countries will be reduced. 

Under the new rules, waste shipments between EU countries will require the permission of national governments in both the dispatching and receiving countries. In contrast, procedures concerning waste recycling will be eased and accelerated.

Tighter rules on waste exports mean more recycling opportunities

The new law imposes stricter restrictions on the export of waste to countries that are not members of the EU or the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Non-OECD countries are generally less economically developed than their OECD counterparts.

Waste can only be sent to non-OECD countries if the recipient country confirms that it is willing to receive the shipments and can guarantee that the waste will be treated in a sustainable and environmentally sound manner.

Waste management procedures in these countries must be independently audited and the Commission will have monitoring powers.

Stéphane Arditi, Director of Policy Integration and Circular Economy at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) welcomed the move, saying:

“Shipping waste outside the EU is […] a missed opportunity to turn waste into secondary raw materials, reducing our dependence on imported natural resources and eventually making the EU a secondary raw material exporter.”

According to the European Environment Agency, only 46% of waste is currently recycled in the EU. The Council notes that EU waste exports have increased by 75% since 2004.

The president of the European Waste Management Association, Claudia Mensi focused on the implications for domestic recyclers: “Our role […] is now to make understand that such restrictions require improved recycling and waste management capacities, a strong and stable demand for recyclates, and improved procedures for us to be able to process these increased amounts of waste.”

A focus on plastic 

The new rules also introduce a ban on the export of non-hazardous plastic waste to non-OECD countries. However, this ban can be lifted in the future for individual recipient countries, if their governments confirm a willingness to accept plastic and can prove to the Commission that they meet waste management standards.

The shipping of plastic between EU countries and OECD countries will be treated like other waste shipments, but the Commission will scrutinise these activities more closely.

“We are reassured that the EU has heard our pleas and is acknowledging the horrific impacts caused by over-consumption of plastic and the export of its waste”, explained Pui Yi Wong from the Basel Action Network, an NGO.

However, the European Recycling Industries Confederation (EURIC), reacting to the law’s approval by Parliament in February, cautioned that “a complete ban on plastic exports without outlet possibilities within Europe severely harms EU plastic recyclers and the domestic plastic recycling industry”.

Illegal shipments

Another key focus of the rules concerns illegal waste shipments. It is estimated that between 15% and 30% of waste shipments are illegal.

According to the Council, illegal shipping increases environmental risks and takes out of circulation material that could be reused or recycled. The regulation supports transnational actions to investigate waste trafficking and creates a European group responsible for enforcing the regulations and strengthening cooperation.

EU law with an international basis, requiring national implementation

The current text updates the 2006 EU Waste Shipment Regulation and builds upon the 1989 Basel Convention and 2001 OECD Decision. These are international agreements respectively concerned with cross-border movements of hazardous waste and control systems for waste destined for recovery.

“It is now for EU member states to ensure that every effort is made so that future EU plastic waste exports are managed in an environmentally sound manner and do not negatively impact the recycling capacities of recipient countries,” said Lauren Weir, senior campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) on behalf of the Rethink Plastic alliance.

Source: Euractiv.com

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France is prepared to requisition “personnel, stocks or production tools” to accelerate the production of armaments by the domestic industry, the Minister for Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu said on Tuesday (26 March).

“For the first time, I’m not ruling out (…), if things are not on track in terms of production rate and lead times, to make requisitions if necessary or to use the right of prioritisation,” Lecornu said at a press conference on Tuesday.

These requisitions could concern personnel, stocks, and other production tools, or require manufacturers to give priority to military requirements over civilian needs, the minister said.

France could “within the next few weeks” give priority to military orders over civilian requirements, and impose minimum stock levels on certain manufacturers, he added.

EU member states have recently started stepping up efforts towards a ‘war economy mode’ for the bloc after the European Commission last month proposed a Defence Industry Programme (EDIP) to revamp the bloc’s military-industrial complex to support European and Ukrainian military needs for the long haul.

Key measures of the EU’s plans feature reserves of supply, as well as priority-rated orders – a mechanism whereby defence industries would get priority in case a shortage of civilian or dual-use components should threaten the availability of defence supply.

The latter was rejected by EU countries last year in the context of the negotiations of the Act in Support of Ammunition (ASAP) to help boost ammo production across the bloc.

The French military defence bill for 2024-2030, voted in August, states that in the event of an “actual or foreseeable threat to activities essential to the life of the nation”, or a threat to “the protection of the population”, the government can decide on the requisition of any person, natural or legal, and of all the goods and services necessary.

Such a war effort could be justified by the tense “security context”, Lecornu said.

“The war in Ukraine has thrown us back into a form of Cold War (…) against the backdrop of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.”

Lecornu also referred to a heightened level of a “terrorist threat”, following the attack in Russia last week, which killed almost 140 people.

French President Emmanuel Macron said in January the European defence industry should be “in war economy mode, with a faster and stronger production capacity”.

“If production rates are sometimes too slow, it’s because there’s a temptation to work on a just-in-time basis and not hold sufficient stocks of raw materials or components”, to avoid tying up cash needed to build up these stocks, Lecornu said.

The French defence minister also complained that the delivery times for the Aster long-range anti-aircraft missile, produced between France and Italy, are too long.

“The question of MBDA’s subcontractors prioritising the military order for the Aster missile over a civilian order is obviously something we can look at completely,” he said.

France ordered 200 Aster missiles in January 2023 for €900 million, with delivery scheduled for 2026. These missiles, which according to Lecornu, “were not previously used or were just used for training purposes”, are now being supplied to Ukraine.

“We now have concrete operational contracts on which we are bidding,” he said, announcing an “advance order” for 200 additional Aster missiles.

Source: Euractiv.com

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With China and the US striving to dominate the world’s future clean-tech markets, European politicians have developed a renewed appetite for protectionism and Europe’s wind power industry is poised to harvest this drive.

To recap: Europe was scarred when the global financial crisis – alongside bad business choices driven by the gold rush mood of the first feed-in tariffs – saw the solar photovoltaic supply chain move to China.

When EU policymakers realised in the summer of 2022 that the US planned to subsidise clean technologies at scale, panic set in.

The EU’s Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) – the bloc’s paltry protectionist response, not backed by much money – is due to be voted on by the European Parliament on 23 April.

The law now lists a whopping 18 technology categories where the EU wants to produce 40% of annual deployment needs by 2030, but this ambition is neither serious nor realistic.

These include traditional technologies like solar and wind, but also a swathe of nuclear categories, as well as “wind propulsion and electric propulsion.”

The NZIA is more of a shotgun than a scalpel, more bazooka than targeted measure. Given the EU’s limited fiscal headway – Europe is embracing a return to more austere budgets as we speak – a certain prioritisation is in order.

Europe’s wind power industry has successfully convinced policymakers to treat it like a beloved only child. Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen called it a “European success story” in her annual address to the EU.

“The future of our clean-tech industry has to be made in Europe,” she stressed. Appetite for protectionism, indeed.

European “clean-tech” lobbyists have seized on this. Their common refrain is that they will eventually be swallowed by China, where labour is cheap, regulations limited, domestic markets large, and cash bountiful.

But not all industries are the same, nor do they have the same starting point—attempting to apply the same strict 40% threshold to them all risks becoming a waste of resources.

The wind industry benefits from wind turbines being a high-tech product where most of the labour occurs during manufacturing – unlike solar, where most jobs are in installation and maintenance. Whether Chinese, Indian, or European panels are getting installed doesn’t matter much for jobs.

Locating wind turbine factories in Europe matters. Some 200 pairs of hands touch a turbine blade before it is shipped out of a factory in Spain, including a full-time position for a man with a mop whose task is to smooth out potential wrinkles in the blade’s structure.

Two-thirds of the jobs in the wind value chain are in production.

This may change when wind turbine production schemes are settled, and innovation becomes less transformative. But it is not yet in sight, turbines keep getting bigger and better.

The rest of the wind value chain, which employs 300,000 people in Europe, is spread across more than half of Europe, ranging from small countries to heavyweights. Plenty of points in the wind industry’s favour.

Other technologies are more niche or promise fewer photo-ops in the short term. The first nuclear power plant built thanks to protectionism will generate power in the late 2030s, if at all.

Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 started construction in 2005 before finishing in 2022. The NZIA will enter into force this year. 16 years to go before 2040. How many “Made in Europe” nuclear power plants will be constructed in that timeframe?.

Batteries are another sector in which EU countries have just begun clawing back market share from China. There is hope, consider Germany’s new Northvolt factory, proving that this global industry is far from settled, and that Europe may just be in a position to leapfrog Beijing without too over protectionism.

While heat pumps, often produced in Asia, are far from popular with policymakers, their producers have already begun turning Eastern Europe into a manufacturing hotspot for the new wave of heating appliances.

And that leaves wind. Developments in recent months suggest that EU countries – most of all Germany and Denmark – are aware of this.

While the solar industry has made desperate pleas for support, the wind industry has received a dedicated wind power package and a charter where the EU-26, bar Hungary, committed to putting the package into effect.

No other clean-tech sector has received similar levels of support, and there’s more to come: The European Commission is currently deliberating whether it will entirely exclude foreign wind turbines from European markets.

Ultimately, it may indeed be the wind industry that will walk away with the largest share of taxpayer support on offer due to the protectionist reflexes of national capitals – and Ursula von der Leyen.

Source: Euractiv.com

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Spain’s decision to recognise Palestine as an independent state is not rewarding terrorism, Israel’s claims otherwise are “nonsense”, according to Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares in an interview on Tuesday (26 March)

In November, during a joint trip with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo to Israel and the Rafah border checkpoint with Egypt, Sanchez first mentioned the possibility of recognising Palestine unilaterally if the EU does not do so.

Then, in early March, Sanchez announced he would push Congress to recognise Palestine before the end of his mandate in 2027.

This sparked anger from Israel, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat stating it “sends a message to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organisations that murderous terrorist attacks against Israelis will be reciprocated with political gestures towards the Palestinians.”

Albares rebuked the statement in an interview with private radio station Cadena SER.

“It is nonsense (…) to think that to support the creation of a Palestinian state is to reward terrorism,” Albares said.

He argued that the Palestinian people “have a right to a land and a hope”, which is that of a Palestinian state encompassing the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and this “is not incompatible with (the existence of) the state of Israel.”

“The hope of the Palestinian people and the security of Israel are closely intertwined”, he added.

The pledge to recognise Palestine was also included in the electoral pact signed in October 2023 between Sanchez’s PSOE party and the junior coalition partner, left-wing platform Sumar, led by the Vice President of the progressive executive and Labour Minister, Yolanda Díaz.

The recent spat follows a recent joint letter from Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia in which they expressed their readiness to recognise the state of Palestine as the “only way to achieve peace and security” in the region.

“We discussed together our readiness to recognise Palestine and said that we would do so when it can make a positive contribution and the circumstances are right,” the four wrote in a joint statement after an EU summit in Brussels.

Source: Euractiv.com

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EU countries endorsed a proposal to ease the environmental requirements of the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the 2023-2027 period, reaching a quick deal on the sidelines of Tuesday’s (26 March) EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council.

The draft text sailed through the EU Council with only minor adjustments made to the original version presented by the European Commission on 15 March. EU diplomatic sources told Euractiv that all national delegations backed the text in today’s informal vote and only Germany abstained.

Although these measures aim to appease the recent wave of protests by the agricultural sector across Europe, farmers staged further demonstrations in Brussels’s EU quarter on Tuesday, coinciding with the ministerial meeting.

 

“We have listened to our farmers and we have taken swift action to address their concerns at a time when they are confronted with numerous challenges,” said David Clarinval, Belgium’s agriculture minister and current chair of the AGRIFISH Council.

“The targeted revision of the rules strikes the right balance between ensuring greater flexibility for farmers and member states and easing the administrative burden, while also maintaining a high level of environmental ambition in the common agricultural policy,” he added.

The proposal supported by the Council maintains the changes proposed by the Commission on six of the nine Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) standards on which CAP payments hinge upon, giving member states more flexibility to implement the policy.

These amendments, which include exemptions on compulsory soil covers, crop rotation, and fallow land rules, can be applied as of 2024.

Additionally, according to the draft legislation, farms of under 10 hectares, which account for 65% of CAP beneficiaries, will not have to comply with environmental checks and penalties.

In a letter sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday (25 March), environmental NGOs and consumer organisations called for a withdrawal of the proposal, arguing that it “completely disregards” the democratic principles of EU decision-making.

“The European Commission has given in to the fake narrative that opposes the environment to agriculture,” the letter said. “The measures proposed will only undermine the very jobs that the CAP is meant to support in the long term,” it further stated.

The 16-organisation coalition, which includes NGOs WWF, BirdLife International, the European Environmental Bureau, environmental law charity Client Earth, and consumers organisation BEUC, slammed the Commission for scrapping the CAP’s environmental requirements without a prior impact assessment and only consulting with four farming organisations.

While the Commission argued that it did not conduct an impact assessment because of the “political urgency” of the measures aimed at addressing “a crisis situation in EU agriculture,” the organisations noted the absence of evidence supporting such urgency.

“The legislative proposal does not constitute a simplification of environmental requirements, it is backtracking,” the letter added.

The European Parliament, which used an urgent procedure to fast-track the legislative process, is expected to formally approve the proposal during its final plenary session on 22-25 April before the institutions enter a lame-duck period leading up to June’s EU elections.

Then, the Council will formally adopt the regulation, which could come into force by June 2024.

Source: Euractiv.com

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The Greek centre-right government (EPP) will face on Tuesday a no-confidence vote pushed forward by opposition parties following a press report suggesting that the conversations between train workers on the night of an accident that killed 57 people were distorted.

The no-confidence vote initiative was taken by the opposition Pan-Hellenic Socialist Party (Pasok) and was backed by other opposition parties.

The main opposition Syriza leader (EU Left), Stefanos Kasselakis, took a step further, calling on Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to resign and call snap elections with the presence of “international observers”.

Although the government has a strong majority and will likely survive the vote, analysts estimate that the three-day discussion that will follow will put many government officials to the test, as they will need to provide answers on the accident.

One year ago, an intercity passenger train travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki collided at high speed with a cargo train outside the city of Larissa in central Greece, killing 57 people, mainly young students.

Since then, the progress of the investigation has been slow, with opposition parties and the victims’ relatives suggesting that the government is trying to cover it up.

Meanwhile, the victims’ relatives have collected more than 1.3 million signatures for a petition to the European Parliament, which was recently submitted.

The petition calls on the EU to step in and investigate the accident and hold politicians – who are protected by immunity – accountable for criminal actions.

The EU lawmakers from all political groups in the European Parliament backed the petition, suggesting that the EU institutions should closely follow the investigation’s progress.

The government insists that there is no criminal responsibility, only political responsibility for ministers, claiming that those involved resigned back then.

But To Vima journal revealed new evidence on the accident causing a political earthquake in Athens over the weekend.

Notably, the press report suggested that the conversations between train workers at the night of the accident – that were made public right after the accident – were “distorted” to enhance the argument of the “human error”.

The government refuted the report branding it as “fake news” but has so far failed to provide specific answers on had access to the audio files of the train workers’ conversations.

Some government officials also attacked the AlterEgoMedia group – where the journal belongs – referring to “organised economic interests”, causing the media group’s angry reaction.

“The media of AlterEgoMedia will continue with persistence, patience, and professional competence to operate in a purely ethical context, against the government practices that have led the country to 107th place worldwide in terms of freedom of the press”, the group said in a statement.

AlterEgoMedia was the only media group that refused to accept state funds provided by the government during the pandemic.

EU prosecutor also under fire

Several analysts have said the accident could have been avoided if a 2014 contract for the reconstruction and upgrade of the signalling system and the remote control of the Athens-Thessaloniki-Promachona railway had been implemented.

The so-called “717 contract” has been scrutinized by EU Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi, who recently said the Greek authorities are posing obstacles in her investigation.

“We are blocked from finding the truth and applying justice. Because if you are forbidden from doing the investigations, you cannot find out the truth”, Kövesi said.

Her statements triggered the reaction of Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis who described her intervention as “unacceptable” and going beyond the limit of her institutional role.

“If there is a procedure, even to question her post, we should do it”, he said.

Source: Euractiv.com

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Welcome to the latest Transport Brief!

Europe’s new suite of green rules for road transport is starting to take shape. Some new laws unambiguously push European carmakers to produce zero-emission vehicles. But other proposals are much less clear.

Take the new weights and dimensions rules. The Parliament’s proposed revision will allow fossil-fuelled trucks heavier than 40 tonnes to cross country borders until 2035.

Or the revision of the rules on tailpipe emissions. The parliament declined to meaningfully increase standards for passenger cars.

And who could forget the last-minute reprieve for the internal combustion engine?

On the other hand, the EU has sent its car manufacturers some pretty strong signals that the future of road transport is zero carbon.

Notwithstanding the debate over e-fuels, EU law now requires that cars and vans sold from 2035 must have zero emissions. Europe’s landmark carbon cap-and-trade system will cover road transport from 2027. And updated Euro 7 standards will cover emissions from brakes and tyres – the main emissions expected from electric vehicles.

The key question is: Do these mixed signals really help Europe’s carmakers?

The future of road transport seems almost certain to be electric. New international competitors in China and the US have wholeheartedly embraced this transition a long time ago.

European manufacturers, wedded to their highly developed combustion engines, were far more reluctant. As a result, there is now no guarantee that Europe’s current leadership in car production will transfer through to the electric age.

Ultimately, European carmakers will only thrive if they can produce the best vehicles.

The sector has already struggled with conflicting urges. Manufacturers’ need to defend past strengths has undermined their willingness to fully pivot to tomorrow’s challenges. It seems that these contradicting commercial interests are now being translated into EU policy – no doubt a result of industry lobbying.

But perhaps Europe’s carmakers would benefit from a clear, unambiguous signal – that from here on in, excellence in deep decarbonisation will be the ultimate driver of commercial success.

Source: Euractiv.com

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