Tausi Insider

The Vladimir Arsenyev tanker at the crude oil terminal Kozmino in Russia, on Aug. 12. TATIANA MEEL/Reuters The Kremlin’s ability to pay for its war in Ukraine depends largely on the sale of hydrocarbons. Oil and natural gas represent 20 per cent of Russia’s GDP and haul in almost half of its budget income. Cut that Volga-River-sized flow of cash into the Russian money vaults and President Vladimir Putin will be forced to sue for peace. Or so the theory goes. Since the start of the war in February, the West, especially the European Union, has imposed wave after wave of sanctions, embargoes and trade measures against Russia, ranging from ejecting Russian banks from the Swift global financial messaging system to virtually eliminating Russian coal from the European electricity-generation mix. The Western assault has pushed Russia into recession (though not one as deep as expected). But oil exports, the lifeblood of its economy, continues to prop up Mr. Putin’s war machine. In the first h...

Freeport LNG on Friday again delayed the restart of the second-biggest U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility, moving its forecast for resuming processing to year’s end, pending regulatory approval. Freeport shut down the Texas plant on June 8 after an explosion energy consultants said was the result of inadequate operating and testing procedures, error and fatigue. Last month, the closely-held company said it was on track to restart the plant in mid December and would get most of its 15 million tonnes per annum production back by January with a return to full service in March. “Based upon current progress, and subject to us continuing to meet necessary regulatory requirements, we now anticipate that the restart of our liquefaction facility to be achieved around year end,” Freeport LNG spokesperson Heather Browne told Reuters in an e-mail. A delayed restart of the plant would leave less fuel for European countries seeking to replace Russian gas. Russia has slashed exports t...

European Union countries are preparing for extraordinary negotiations on Saturday aimed at finalising a deal on a gas price cap that has divided the 27-country bloc. EU states have debated for months whether capping gas prices would help or harm their attempts to contain an energy crunch triggered by Russia slashing gas deliveries to Europe, which has pushed up fuel costs and stoked inflation. The European Commission proposed a price cap last month, and EU countries are aiming to agree on the cap at a Dec 13 meeting of their energy ministers in Brussels. But with days to go, countries still appear deeply divided, with some EU officials sceptical that a deal can be reached next week. Around 15 states including Italy, Poland and Belgium have said they want an EU-wide gas price cap, while a smaller camp including Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark are opposed. After initially calling for a cap, France has this week signalled it is concerned by the potential fallout in financial market...

A floating LNG gas terminal in the harbour in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, on Nov. 15, 2022. FABIAN BIMMER/Reuters European Union energy regulators were unable to launch a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) price assessment by a Friday deadline because they did not receive enough data from market participants. The price assessment by the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) is to be the first step in the EU’s plan to launch a new European benchmark piece for LNG, which Europe is switching to, to replace Russian pipeline gas. Once established, market participants could use the new benchmark as the basis for LNG contracts, which have historically been pegged to the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) gas hub price that became highly volatile in the last year after Russia slashed pipeline gas deliveries to Europe. But ACER was not able to publish its first daily LNG price assessment as planned on Friday, because only two of nine transactions reported to the regulator we...

Construction for an LNG Canada site in Kitimat, B.C., in September 2022. LNG Canada/Reuters Shell PLC’s LNG Canada export project in British Columbia plans to start building its proposed second phase with natural gas-powered turbines and switch to electricity as more renewable power becomes available, a top executive said, a decision that means the expansion project will initially generate high greenhouse gas emissions. LNG Canada, in which Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. owns a 15 per cent stake, is set to be Canada’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal. The first phase is expected to begin shipments around 2025. With global demand for natural gas from sources other than Russia accelerating after its invasion of Ukraine last year, LNG Canada is weighing whether to build by 2030 a second phase to double annual capacity to 28 million tonnes. LNG Canada now plans to initially build Phase 2 with natural gas-powered turbines and switch to electric motors as more power becomes avai...

Doug Slater, FortisBC vice-president of external and Indigenous relations, poses for a photograph at the company's Tilbury LNG facility in Delta, B.C., on Dec. 19, 2022. DARRYL DYCK/Tausi Insider An industrial site in British Columbia has emerged as a battleground over whether governments that have pledged to fight climate change should approve new projects to export liquefied natural gas. The Tilbury Pacific Marine Jetty project is seeking permission to build a new two-berth dock for Tilbury Island in the Vancouver suburb of Delta. Environmental groups say pending decisions by cabinet ministers on the Delta jetty proposal will be an important indicator of whether there is a political appetite in Canada for exporting LNG, given the B.C. and federal governments’ commitments to net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. Supporters of exports say Canada is positioned to help bolster global supplies of the fuel, especially from the West Coast to Asia, noting that worldwide deman...