Twinza plans 2027 start for PNG LPG, condensate project

: Condensate, LPG, Natural gas
23/12/13

Australian independent Twinza Oil plans to take a final investment decision (FID) in 2025 for its Pasca A condensate and LPG field offshore Papua New Guinea (PNG).

With an estimated 170mn bl of oil equivalent (boe) of hydrocarbon resources, Pasca is one of five resources projects identified by prime minister James Marape as a priority for his nation's economic growth, along with the P'nyang gas field, Papua LNG, Porgera gold mine restart and the Wafi-Golpu copper project.

Twinza is aiming to take a FID on Pasca during January-March 2025, its chairman Stephen Quatrill said at the PNG Resources and Energy Investment Conference in Sydney on 12 December.

Pasca, based in the Gulf of Papua, will host the first offshore production facility in PNG with its first phase a $700mn, 19,000 b/d liquids project to come on line in 2027, with the second phase a 750,000 t/yr floating LNG project requiring an additional $800mn investment to produce its first gas in 2030.

Resource projections for Pasca are 47mn bl of condensate, 43mn bl of LPG and 464bn ft³ (13.1bn m³) of natural gas, the firm said on 29 March, a resource assessment 35pc larger than a previous assessment prepared in 2018.

Twinza's technical team had completed extensive work with consultancy GaffneyCline, Quatrill said, which proved the field had potential to store up to 200mn t of carbon dioxide (CO2) at a rate of 3mn t/yr concurrently with gas production, with potential to be PNG's only CO2 negative LNG project.

By Tom Major

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25/04/25

Kurdish gas plans may boost Iraqi oil exports

Dubai, 25 April (Argus) — Plans for a significant increase in natural gas production in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region over the next 18 months could not only help address the country's chronic power shortages but also enable Baghdad to increase its oil exports. The Pearl Petroleum consortium — which comprises Abu Dhabi-listed Dana Gas, Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum, Austria's OMV, Hungary's Mol, and Germany's RWE — aims to increase gas production capacity in Kurdistan to 825mn ft³/d by the end of next year, representing a more than 50pc increase from current output. The plan involves expanding the capacity of the region's sole gas-producing field, Khor Mor, to 750mn ft³/d by the first quarter of 2026, and adding up to 75mn ft³/d from the Chemchemal field by the end of 2026. According to a source at Pearl, the development of Chemchemal is a key priority for the companies, as it is believed to have reservoirs comparable to those of Khor Mor. Under a 2019 agreement, the additional gas from the expansion project will be sold to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for a 20-year term, which should help eliminate the region's frequent power outages, particularly during peak summer months when demand for air conditioning is high. The Kurdistan region will also be well-positioned to supply any excess gas to the rest of Iraq. The federal government in Baghdad had previously approved a plan to import approximately 100mn ft³/d of gas from Khor Mor to power a 620MW plant in Kirkuk province, but no formal agreement has been signed to date. "The federal ministry of electricity and Crescent Petroleum have already met to finalise the agreement, which is ready for signature and awaiting implementation," the Pearl source said. "The infrastructure needed to support the sale of this quantity of gas is also in place." The plan has faced delays partly because of Iran's long-standing influence over Iraq and the potential impact such an agreement with the Kurdistan region could have on Baghdad's reliance on Iranian gas and power. However, the revival of US president Donald Trump's ‘maximum pressure' campaign against Tehran is forcing Baghdad to get serious about seeking alternative energy sources, with the Kurdistan region emerging as a viable option. Crude Export Boost Formalising the deal to import Kurdish gas would allow Baghdad to allocate more oil for export, as it would reduce the need to burn crude for power generation. Argus estimates that Iraq typically burns between 50,000 b/d and 100,000 b/d of crude in its power stations, depending on the season, and has recently increased imports of gasoil for power generation. By the time Iraqi Kurdistan has fully ramped up its additional gas capacity, Iraq's Opec+ crude output target will be 200,000 b/d higher than it is today, based on the group's latest production plans. By Bachar Halabi and Nader Itayim Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Dow delays Path2Zero ethylene project in Canada

25/04/24

Dow delays Path2Zero ethylene project in Canada

Houston, 24 April (Argus) — Dow is delaying construction in Canada of its Path2Zero project, designed to produce 1.9mn metric tonne (t)/yr of low-carbon ethylene, until "market conditions improve", the company said today. The company decided to delay work at its Path2Zero project site in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, in light of uncertainty around US tariffs and potential retaliatory tariffs by US trading partners, especially their impact on product demand, the company said Thursday on its first-quarter earnings call. Path2Zero, designed to produce ethylene and derivatives with net-zero carbon emissions, was announced in October 2021 and was originally planned for a first-phase start-up in 2027 and a second phase in 2029. The first phase was meant to coincide with an expected upturn in the business cycle. But tariffs have increased uncertainty to the point that Dow said it cannot be sure of a recovery in two years. Chief executive Jim Fitterling described the current market environment as "one of the most protracted down-cycles in decades", compounded by geopolitical and macroeconomic concerns that further weigh on demand. The Path2Zero project delay will save $600mn in 2025, accounting for 60pc of the company's plan to cut capital spending this year by $1bn from the company's original $3.5bn spending plan. The pause comes before a ramp up in construction labor and allows the company to see how tariffs effect global demand and supply chains. "We are at a point right now where we can make this decision to have minimal impact on the project," Fitterling said. "We've done a lot of groundwork, we're finishing our engineering work, and we've got our long lead time items ordered." Despite the delay, Dow remains committed to the project in the long-term. The project will one day capture upside in demand for targeted applications like pressure pipe, wiring cable and food packaging, the company said. When complete, the project is expected to generate approximately $1bn/yr in incremental earnings. Even with the delay, it is still likely to be the world's first integrated ethylene complex to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions. To restart the project, Dow said it would have to start seeing supply and demand balances tighten. The company said it would next revisit restarting the project at the end of 2025. Without a green light by year's end, Dow said it would review a project restart "on a regular basis". The project would triple the site's ethylene and polyethylene (PE) capacity. In total, the site would produce approximately 3.2mn t/yr of low-to-zero emissions PE and other ethylene derivatives. The first phase startup in 2027 was to have brought on 1.3mn t/yr of ethane-derived ethylene and PE, and the second phase in 2029 was to bring on an additional 600,000 t/yr of ethylene and PE. The site will also convert cracker off-gas into hydrogen to be reused as a clean fuel in the production process. The project is designed to capture CO2 emissions for storage by adjacent third-party infrastructure. By Michael Camarda Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Investment funds slash net long position on Ice TTF

25/04/24

Investment funds slash net long position on Ice TTF

London, 24 April (Argus) — Investment funds have slashed their TTF net long positions on the Intercontinental Exchange (Ice) nearly in half so far in April, with commercial undertakings' net long position conversely rising. Investment funds' net long position on Ice dropped to 86TWh in the week ending 17 April, well below the 146TWh at the end of March, and was as low as 73TWh on 11 April ( see net positions graph ). The near-halving of their net position was driven entirely by the closing of longs, which dropped to 308TWh by 17 April from 383TWh on 28 March. In contrast, shorts dropped by only 16TWh in the same period, the exchange's most recent Commitments of Traders report shows. This left investment funds' total amount of open positions at 529TWh by 17 April, well down from 620TWh on 28 March. Global commodity market turmoil in recent weeks following the US' ‘liberation day' on which president Donald Trump announced tariffs on nearly every country may have prompted funds to reduce their exposure to gas market. The resulting fallout in global commodity, stock, bond and currency markets would have hit multi-strategy hedge funds in particular, which had exposure to many different assets, some of which are thought to be among the largest players in the overall investment fund category of participant. Wider macroeconomic factors rather than market fundamentals have driven the TTF this month, according to many traders, with daily TTF movements frequently having tracked wider moves across global macroeconomic indicators such as the S&P 500 index. In contrast with investment funds' sharply reduced net long position, commercial undertakings — the other largest category of market participant, mostly comprising firms with retail portfolios — more than doubled their net long position to 85TWh on 17 April from 33TWh on 28 March. This means commercial undertakings' and investment funds' net positions now have nearly exactly converged, with the difference between them having been as wide as nearly 350TWh as recently as early February. Commercial undertakings first flipped to a net long position in the week ending 28 February, and the net long has steadily increased every week since then. While investment funds significantly reduced their overall exposure to the TTF, commercial undertakings increased both their long and short positions in April. Total shorts rose by about 34TWh between 28 March and 17 April to 1.055PWh, while longs soared by 86TWh to 1.140PWh. This leaves their total open positions at about 2.195PWh, more than quadruple investment funds' 529TWh. The data could suggest that commercial undertakings took advantage of hedge funds unwinding their long positions, leading to a reallocation of about 90TWh of liquidity from speculative positions to risk reduction contracts. The large majority of commercial undertakings' overall open positions are risk reduction contracts, which total 1.457PWh out of aggregate open positions of 2.195PWh, or 66pc. In contrast, investment funds hold zero risk reduction contracts, making it likely that all of their interest is speculative. Commercial undertakings' risk reduction shorts increased only by about 7TWh between 28 March and 17 April to 747TWh, but longs soared by 92TWh over the same period to an all-time high of 710TWh. As recently as 28 February, risk reduction longs were as low as 550TWh, meaning an overall increase of nearly 200TWh in less than two months. The only other time in recent history when risk reduction longs increased at such a rapid pace was in 2018, when they jumped from 445TWh on 30 July to a peak of 644TWh on 15 October ( see risk reduction graph ). One explanation for such a distinct increase in risk reduction longs while shorts remained roughly even could simply be that utilities have purchased winter contracts instead of the more usual practice of hedging physical gas bought for summer injection by selling winter contracts. Typically, summer prices are below winter thanks to lower seasonal consumption, so a utility would buy the summer to inject the gas and sell the winter for when it will be withdrawn, locking in a profit margin. But because summer prices this year remained above winter, there was no commercial incentive to lock in a negative spread, meaning utilities may simply have opted to buy winter contracts to cover their expected demand. But since the turn of April, TTF summer-month prices have increased their discount to the front-winter, providing more of an incentive to inject gas. By Brendan A'Hearn Net positions on ICE TTF TWh Commercial undertakings' risk reduction positions TWh Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Eni cuts capex on macro headwinds, tariff uncertainty

25/04/24

Eni cuts capex on macro headwinds, tariff uncertainty

London, 24 April (Argus) — Italy's Eni has cut its spending plans for this year in response to macroeconomic headwinds, uncertainty around trade tariffs and a lower oil price outlook. The company is planning a series of "mitigation measures" worth over €2bn [$2.28bn], a key element of which is a reduction in 2025 capex to below €8.5bn from previous guidance of €9bn. Eni now expects net capex — which takes into account acquisitions and asset sales — to come in below €6bn this year, compared with its initial plan of €6.5bn-7bn. Other savings will come from "mitigating actions" around its portfolio, operating costs and "other cash initiatives", the firm said. Eni's plan reflects a tariff-driven deterioration in the outlook for the global economy and, in turn, global oil demand and oil prices. The company has revised its Brent crude price assumption for 2025 down to $65/bl from $75/bl previously. It has also lowered its refining margin indicator assumption for the year to $3.5/bl from $4.7/bl. The lower oil price assumption has not changed the company's upstream production forecast — it still expects 2025 output to average 1.7mn b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d). But Eni's production in the first quarter was only 1.65mn boe/d, 5pc lower than the same period last year. The firm's gas production took the biggest hit, falling by 9pc on the year to 4.5bn ft³/d (861,000 boe/d) as a result of divestments and natural decline at mature fields. Liquids output fell by 1pc year on year to 786,000 boe/d. Eni reported a profit of €1.17bn for January-March, 3pc lower than the same period last year. Underlying profit— which strips out inventory valuation effects and other one off-items — fell by 11pc on the year to €1.41bn. Eni said the fall in profits was mainly due to lower oil prices. The company also had to contend with weaker refining margins and throughputs, as well as a continuing downturn in the European chemicals sector. By Aydin Calik Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

US states including New York sue Trump over tariffs

25/04/23

US states including New York sue Trump over tariffs

New York, 23 April (Argus) — A coalition of 12 states including New York is suing the administration of President Donald Trump for imposing "illegal" tariffs that threaten to raise inflation and derail economic growth. The lawsuit, filed by attorneys general from the 12 states, argues that Congress has not granted the president the authority to impose the tariffs and the administration violated the law by imposing them through executive orders, social media posts, and agency orders. "President Trump's reckless tariffs have skyrocketed costs for consumers and unleashed economic chaos across the country," said New York governor Kathy Hochul (D). "New York is standing up to fight back against the largest federal tax hike in American history." The lawsuit alleges the tariffs will increase unemployment, threaten wages by slowing economic growth and push up the cost of key goods from electronics to building materials. The lawsuit, which was filed in the United States Court of International Trade, seeks a court order halting the tariffs. By Stephen Cunningham Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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