Energy News Beat

WASHINGTON – Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) President and CEO Jeff Eshelman released a statement ahead of the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 10:00 a.m. ET examining Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) actions affecting American oil and natural gas operations, particularly those regulations and programs related to methane emissions.

IPAA President & CEO Jeff Eshelman said, “IPAA appreciates the committee’s review of this important issue – the EPA’s overbearing regulatory regime will undoubtedly harm America’s oil and natural gas producers, increase energy supply costs and harm the economy. It is estimated that EPA’s recently finalized methane rules will lead to the shutdown of 300,000 of the nation’s 750,000 low production wells. The federal government should not use the regulatory process to eliminate much needed sources of energy. Independent oil and natural gas producers are committed to effectively managing their methane and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions. At issue is developing appropriate techniques that reflect both the emissions profile and the economic challenges of each segment of the industry from large to small.”

Background. In Wednesday’s hearing, the Committee will hear from three independent producers:

Drew Martin, Managing Member and Director of Finance, Miller Energy;
Patrick Montalban, Chairman and CEO, Montalban Oil and Gas Operations;
Mike Oestmann, President and CEO, Tall City Energy

The Methane Emissions Reduction Program (Methane Tax) that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress complicates industry efforts to plan and comply with EPA’s rule to address emissions from oil and natural gas production. The tax was passed without any committee hearings, expert testimony, or impact analysis on prices to consumers, impact on domestic production, or impact on industrial manufacturing consumers.

The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) is a national upstream trade association representing thousands of independent oil and natural gas producers and service companies across the United States. Independent producers develop 91% of the nation’s oil and natural gas wells. These companies account for 83% of America’s oil production, 90% of its natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) production, and support over 4.5 million American jobs.

Source: Worldoil.com

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Energy News Beat

Qatari LNG shipping giant Nakilat has placed orders worth about $955 million with South Korea’s Hyundai Samho for the construction of two LNG tankers and four LPG carriers.

S.Y. Park, president and COO of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Nakilat’s CEO, Abdullah Al Sulaiti, signed the shipbuilding deal on January 9.

The LNG carriers will each have a capacity of 174,000 cubic meters, while the very large LPG/ ammonia gas carriers will each have a capacity of 88,000 cbm.

Nakilat will take delivery of these vessels between 2026 and 2027, but the company did not provide the price tag of the deal.

HD KSOE said in a filling to the stock exchange on January 10 that the entire order is worth about $955 million. It did not break down the price for just the LNG carriers.

The latest orders for LNG carriers at HD Hyundai’s yards were priced at about $265 million per vessel.

However, shipbuilding sources said that Nakilat most likely secured a lower price for these LNG carriers as VLGCs, VLACs are currently priced between $115-120 million.

Upon delivery of the two new LNG carriers, Nakilat’s LNG fleet will expand to 71 vessels, while the LPG fleet will grow to eight vessels, it said.

In October 2021, Nakilat took delivery of the 173,400-cbm Global Sea Spirit, followed by the delivery of the 174,000-cbm Global Sealine in January 2022. Hanwha Ocean, previously known as DSME, built these vessels.

Nakilat’s fleet currently includes 24 conventional LNG carriers, 31 Q-Flex vessels (210,000-217,000 cbm), 14 Q-Max vessels (263,000-266,000 cbm), and also one FSRU.

The company’s LNG fleet has a combined carrying capacity of over 9 million cubic meters, or some 12 percent of the global LNG fleet carrying capacity, according to Nakilat.

(Article updated on December 10 to say that the entire order is worth about $955 million.)

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Energy News Beat

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the Gladstone port in Australia’s Queensland rose 1.4 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to Gladstone Ports Corporation.

Curtis Island is home to the Santos-operated GLNG plant, the ConocoPhillips-led APLNG terminal, and Shell’s QCLNG facility. These are the only LNG export facilities on Australia’s east coast.

The three terminal shipped about 22.97 million tonnes of LNG or 350 cargoes in 2023, GPC’s data shows.

This compares to about 22.64 million tonnes of LNG or 354 cargoes in 2022, the data shows.

In December 2023, LNG exports reached some 2.25 million tonnes of LNG or 32 cargoes, up from 1.84 million tonnes of LNG or 29 cargoes in December 2022, and also a rise from about 1.82 million tonnes of LNG or 28 cargoes in the prior month.

Most of 2023 LNG exports (13.46 million tonnes) landed in China, marking a rise compared to 12.38 million tonnes last year, the data shows.

Volumes to South Korea dropped to 3.42 million tonnes last year from 3.84 million tonnes in 2022, while volumes to Japan decreased to 1.98 million tonnes from 2.66 million tonnes.

GPC’s data also shows that Malaysian volumes were almost flat in 2023 reaching 2.21 million tonnes, while Singapore volumes rose to 1.51 million tonnes from 1.27 million tonnes in 2022.

During 2023, the three plants also sent 289,962 tonnes to Thailand and 67,400 tonnes to the Philippines, the data shows.

In August, LNG giant Shell supplied the commissioning cargo to First Gen’s FSRU-based terminal in Batangas, Philippines.

The Shell-operated QCLNG plant recently also shipped its 1000th cargo since it started operations in May 2015.

This is the first of the Queensland projects to reach 1,000 cargoes, according to Shell’s QGC.

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