Author: bomuo

Transactions that are for less than one year. 10-12% of world LNG is traded on spot deals. The leading LNG spot exporters are Trinidad, Algeria, Oman and Qatar where spot LNG deals are seen as a complement to their long term trading and reduces the risk of starting a liquefaction plant without a gas sales and purchasing agreement covering the entire plant capacity. On the import side, the US has been the main driver for imports of spot LNG where LNG has mostly been based on short term transactions. Also on the demand side of the equation LNG spot helps to fill the gap between gas contracted for on a long term basis and actual demand of a given market. In so far as terminals are concerned this is often restricted by scheduling, storage and downstream pipeline constraints. A secondary source of spot LNG is what is known as re-direction of cargoes. . From the logistic point of view, the development of a spot LNG market requires surplus capacity of shipping and receiving terminals

The $14.65 billion South Stream project signed in 2007 by Gazprom (50%) and Italy’s Eni (50%) is designed to carry mostly Central Asian gas to Western Europe at a capacity of up to 30 bcm/year. Construction is due to take at least four years and is expected to begin in 2008-2009. This pipeline could have far reaching consequences to both gas producing countries and transit states. It could largely parallel the Nabucco project (the Nabucco pipeline is a project intended to diversify gas supplies to Europe) through southern and central Europe and since the latter has no throughput volumes yet confirmed (with the exception of Bulgaria that signed an agreement to purchase 1 bcm of gas per annum from Azerbaijan), Russia is in an ideal position to pressure the target Caspian countries to make sure they comply with Russian plans. The pipeline is especially being constructed to help Russia reduce its dependence on transit countries including Ukraine and Turkey for its gas destined for European markets.

The 692 km pipeline has been designed to transport gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, through Georgia and on to the Georgia-Turkey border. The pipeline will eventually be able to transport 16 bcm of gas per year

A rock from which oil or natural gas is generated from organic materials. Source rocks are geologically rare. 90% of the world’s petroleum is generated in 6 discrete intervals, representing about 30% of post Cambrian geological time. Most petroleum is geologically recent – 67% is generated and trapped in the last 80 million years, whilst some older petroleum accumulations would have been destroyed through geological time by tectonic processes. 25% of the world oil has been generated during the last 5 million years

Poor quality gas – natural gas containing more than 1-1/2 grains of hydrogen sulfide per 100 cubic feet.

One of the most important parts of gas processing involves the removal of sulfur and carbon dioxide. Because of the rotten smell provided by its sulfur content, this natural gas is called ‘sour gas’. This sulfur can be lethal to breathe and also very corrosive for pipelines or generation facilities. In addition, the sulfur that exists in the natural gas can be extracted and marketed on its own. Sulfur exists in natural gas as hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and the gas is usually considered sour if the hydrogen sulfide content exceeds 5.7 milligrams of H2S per cubic meter of natural gas. The process for removing hydrogen sulfide from sour gas is commonly referred to as sweetening the gas

Algerian State owned energy group and is the largest African O&G company, ranking # 12 globally for petrol, 2nd for LNG and 3rd for natural gas exports. Algeria pumps about 1.4 million barrels of oil per day and exports 62 billion cubic meters of gas a year, mostly to Europe

One of 3 common methods to remove nitrogen from natural gas. In solvent recovery processes, the hydrocarbons in the feed stream are absorbed by a chemical solvent and the nitrogen that remains is dispersed by vent. The hydrocarbons are recovered from the solvent through a series of flash operations. Because the process requires that the gas stream be cooled to only -30 degrees, effective separation usually begins within 2 or 3 hours after start-up. In addition, solvent recovery processes provide the benefit of handling one of the problems commonly associated with nitrogen rejection: the presence of natural gas liquid elements in the feed stream. After nitrogen has been removed, the presence of these additional heavy hydrocarbons usually results in a stream with a hydrocarbon dew point that exceeds pipeline requirements. While other processes require an additional plant to remove the natural gas liquids, the solvent process conveniently handles both the separation of the nitrogen and the NGL’s in a single plant. Of course, the recovered liquids can also be sold, enhancing the overall revenue stream of a project.