Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Active rigs:

	10/13/2015	10/13/2014	10/13/2013	10/13/2012	10/13/2011
Active Rigs	68	191	184	192	195

RBN Energy: LNG -- floating storage and regasification units.

Depending on whom you believe, the international liquefied natural gas (LNG) market is either struggling through a period of oversupply and rock-bottom prices or poised for a new round of demand growth based on that low-cost supply abundance. (Hint: The answer may well be both of the above.) For electric and natural gas utilities that want to become LNG importers as quickly—and as cheaply--as possible, an increasingly popular option is buying or (more likely) chartering a floating storage and regasification unit, or FSRU. Today, we look at the growing use of FSRUs and how they may boost the LNG market.

The LNG-laden tankers departing from the world’s growing list of liquefaction and export terminals (a list soon to include Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana) are destined for import and regasification terminals in Asia, Europe, Latin America and elsewhere—even hydrocarbon-rich locales like Kuwait. Traditionally, these LNG-receiving facilities have been built on land, next to long piers where LNG tankers dock and offload their cargo. Increasingly, though, LNG importers are turning to FSRUs--LNG tankers fitted with special equipment that enables them to receive, store and regasify (or vaporize) LNG. It’s hard to say for sure yet, but FSRUs may eventually become a significant factor in the international LNG market.

Turkey and Russia at odds over Syria -- Bloomberg/Rigzone:

It’s taken less than a year for Russian President Vladimir Putin to go from hailing Turkey as a potential linchpin in natural gas supplies to Europe to shunning it.

As the nations fall out over the conflict in Syria, Moscow-based Gazprom PJSC, the world’s largest gas producer, said last week it would cut the capacity of a planned link to Turkey and on to Europe by 50 percent. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia last week that energy cooperation could suffer because of the former Soviet nation’s violation of his country’s airspace and military buildup in the region.

That’s a far cry from last year, when Putin said Turkey could become an energy hub for southern Europe as the proposed link under the Black Sea would help Russia reduce its dependence on gas transit via Ukraine, the current route for more than 10 percent of Europe’s gas.

Putin feels able to change tack on Turkey, the second-largest customer for Russian gas, because in September he agreed to expand the Nord Stream pipeline that links Russia directly with Germany.

“Putin is betting on Nord Stream, but that bet is risky," Sijbren de Jong, energy security analyst at the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, said by e-mail. "Can Gazprom really afford to annoy Turkey and forgo gas revenues? Hardly."

Russia relies on oil and gas for about half of its budget earnings and is adept at mixing its energy policies with political aims. It stepped up energy cooperation with Turkey and China last year as relations with the EU and the U.S. soured over the Ukraine conflict and profits from gas sales in Europe slumped on weaker commodity prices.