Chinese city gas operators have seen gas sales and profits rise amid a rebound in industrial demand and strong heating needs this winter. Fitch Rating says the spike in Chinese gas demand can be met to a large extend and pushed up distributors’ profits, though rising spot LNG prices put pressure on dollar margins.
Utilisation of Bangladesh’s thermal power plants is in decline amid rising reliance on costly LNG imports, which increases the cost of power generation. Data from the Bangladesh Power Development Board’s (BPDB) latest report shows that overall power capacity utilisation fell from 43% to just 40% in fiscal year 2019-20.
El Paso Electric (EPE) has selected Mitsubishi Power’s Smart M501GAC gas turbine to replace three ageing units and balance renewable energy supply. EPE is adding 200 MW of solar power and 50 MW of battery storage, counting on the 288 MW turbine’s rapid dispatch capability to mitigate intermittency issues.
US natural gas producers have asked McDermott to carry out a study into how to best expand current liquid hydrogen storage capacity limits. CB&I, part of McDermott, specialises in cryogenic storage and is currently building the world's largest liquid hydrogen sphere for NASA.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is about to launch the world’s first roadmap to net-zero emissions by 2050. The UK and the Netherlands already set binding CO2 reduction goals and if US President Biden follows through on his pledges, countries accounting for over 60% of global emissions will have net-zero ambitions.
China, the world’s second-largest demand market, has connected 7.1 million households to its national gas network over the course of 2020, increasing the country’s gas demand for heating. LNG imports to China hit fresh records despite pandemic-related lockdowns in the first half of the year.
Joe Biden’s inauguration as US President today heralds major policy shifts on trade with China and climate goals. China’s Phase 1 trade commitment to buy an additional $52.4 billion of energy from the US by end-2021 will remain in place, though analysts say it looks “difficult to achieve.”
Bakken Midstream, infrastructure developer in North Dakota, has signed its first ethane supply term sheet with Williston Basin Energy Center, a large baseload power plant. Novel combustion technology allows the Williston plant to run on ethane which is otherwise flared in the fracking process.
Fossil fuel production in the United States will stay flat this year as rising coal output offsets falling gas production, the US administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) finds. Starting from 2022, production of all fossil fuels is set to increase though growth will stay below the 2019 peak.
The US Department of Energy’s Office, staffed by the outgoing President Trump, has launched a report on impacts of the so-called “ill-conceived ban on hydraulic fracturing,” proposed by the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden. The ban will allegedly cost millions of jobs and make gas and power prices surge.
The United States has informed German officials its plans to levy sanctions on the Russian pipe-laying vessel ‘Fortuna’ and its owner, KVT-RUS, effective today. ‘Fortuna’ is building the Gazprom-led Nord Stream 2 pipeline, opposed by Washington as it raises Germany’s reliance on Russian gas.
Edinburg-based Spectrolytic has developed an in-line measurement system for oil condition monitoring. The system streams key parametric data of the oil to a machine control centre, customer intranet or cloud which provides the customer with real-time process control.