Anglo-Swiss commodity trader Glencore is understood to partner with Limay LNG Power Corp. on realizing a LNG-fuelled power plant in Batan, Luzon Island, with a capacity of 1,100 MW. Glencore could provide project financing and help with LNG procurement, adding to supplies from the Philippines’ depleting Malampaya field.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has agreed a financing deal for the 1,760 MW Jawa-1 gas power plant and an accompanying floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU). The integrated LNG-to-power project will be built at a cost of $1.8 billion by PT Pertamina, Marubeni and Sojitz and is due operational in December 2021.

Deployment of large-scale battery storage is rapidly increasing across the United States, but capital costs of energy storage systems vary greatly, dependent on the technology uses. Energy-oriented batteries systems, used for peakload shaving, are designed for longer durations and consequently have higher average costs per kilowatt and lower costs per kilowatthour. This type is mostly used in the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) area.

Dynamics of the global energy transition are driven by the speed of electrification and the competition between flexible gas power plants and renewables plus energy storage. Margins in the downstream power market are becoming more attractive, as price discrimination allows for better value capture downstream than in the generation business.

The world’s advanced economies will see an uptick in their emissions, bucking a five-year long decline. Energy-related CO2 emissions in North America, the EU and industrialized countries in Asia Pacific grew by around 0.5% in 2018, as higher oil and gas use more than offset declining coal consumption, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Carbon capture and hydrogen are interdependent; hence the resurgence of strategic interest in hydrogen is strongly connected with carbon capture in multiple ways. “The most basic is the source of hydrogen: today it is fossil fuels with over 10 tons of CO2 emitted for a ton of H2,” said IEA chief economist Laszlo Varro.

Princeton University researchers have proposed a U.S. pipeline network that would capture, transport and store underground up to 30 million metric tons of emissions each year – an amount equal to removing 6.5 million cars from the road. The pipeline would transfer CO2 waste from ethanol refineries in the American Midwest to oilfields in West Texas for use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is one of a few options that can significantly reduce emissions from coal and gas power generation as well as from industrial processes such as steel, cement and chemicals manufacturing. “Without CCUS as part of the solution,” said IEA head Dr. Fatih Birol, “reaching our international climate goals is practically impossible.”

Utilities around the global are understood to have halted operations of at least 18 of GE’s HA turbines at power plants following blade oxidation corrosion issues. The technical issues are reportedly very similar to a recent GE turbine blade failure at Exelon’s Colorado Bend power plant near Houston.

Boosting upstream investment, Chevron has set aside $3.6 billion for fracking in the Permian Basin out of a total $20 billion of capital spending in 2019. The decision comes as U.S. recoverable shale oil and gas reserves have been assessed at a record high.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is about to initiate more rollback regulations in favour of coal in the power sectors. The proposals included loosening the New Source Performance Standards which mandate how much CO2 new power plants can emit. However, these rollbacks are unlikely to stop the demise of the U.S. coal industry as natural gas is outcompeting coal on cost.

Indonesian state-owned energy firm Pertamina, together with Marubeni and Sojitz, has reached financial close for a $1.8 billion integrated LNG regas and power generation project. The 1,760 MW Jawa-1 combined-cycle power plant (CCGT), as well as an adjacent floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), is slated to start operation in December 2021.

Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries has spent $175 million to develop a floating gas-fired power plant, fuelled by LNG, and aimed at Southeast Asian market. The power ships will be offered to utility customers on remote islands and in isolated locations with underdeveloped gas pipeline infrastructure.

The Japanese utility Hokkaido Electric Power has started loading trucks with LNG at its Ishikari import facility to supply industry and a decentralized gas power plant at Ishikari Bay New Port. The 3x569 MW power plant is set to start operations in February 2019.

Momentum for GE’s flagship HA gas turbine “continues to be strong,” the manufacturer said when announcing two order wins in the third quarter. The customers are Florida’s Tampa Electric (TECO) and the Taiwanese independent power producer (IPP) Chiahui Corp.