This is a provision common in long term gas contracts, under which a buyer has the option to vary his demand, in a specified bank above or below average contract quantity.
In gas purchasing contracts, the seasonal flexibility agreed in the rate of supply. The higher the swing factor, the greater the flexibility in meeting seasonal demand
Generally reserves refer to the volume of technically and commercially recoverable hydrocarbons in an oil and/or gas reservoir (as opposed to the total volume of oil or gas in place, much of which may not be recoverable using current technology and in current market conditions). According to the Society of Petroleum Engineers, reserves are “those quantities of petroleum claimed to be commercially recoverable by application of development projects to known accumulations under defined conditions.” There are three major classifications of reserves: proven/proved, probable and possible.
The term is not to be confused with resources, which denotes oil and gas that may be present, such as when conditions appear to be geologically favorable even though there is no specific data supporting the estimate.
Any site which has not yet been drilled can only be categorized as potential resources and not potential reserves.
There are two categories of resources: contingent and prospective.
Contingent resources are quantities of petroleum estimated, as of a given date, to be potentially recoverable from known accumulations, but the projects are not yet considered mature enough for commercial development due to one or more contingencies.
The daily spot market for natural gas is active, and trading can occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, in the natural gas market, the largest volume of trading occurs in the last week of every month. Known as ‘bid week’, this is when producers are trying to sell their core production and consumers are trying to buy for their core natural gas needs for the upcoming month. The core natural gas supply or demand is not expected to change; producers know they will have that much natural gas over the next month, and consumers know that they will require that much natural gas over the next month. The average prices set during bid week are commonly the prices used in physical contracts.
End of month period when cash transactions are carried out for the next month.
Method for testing of pipeline welds that is superior to the regular NDT non-destructive testing or radiography. AUT inspection utilizes techniques with zoned inspection and time of flight diffraction (ToFD) techniques. The system provides an adequate number of inspection channels and is designed with sufficient beam overlap to ensure the complete volumetric examination of the weld through thickness. The system includes a fully automated recording system to indicate the location of imperfections and the effectiveness of the acoustic coupling. A scribe tool is provided to scribe the band side of pipe ends with a permanent mark completely around the circumference for determining positioning of the scanning band. AUT calibration blocks are designed to permit detection and sizing of indications in conformance with project specific codes and/or standards. A separate calibration block is required for each pipe diameter, thickness and weld bevel configuration. Calibration shall be performed prior to the start of the inspection and/or every time a technique is loaded.
During the first half of 2004, the Natural Gas Authority conducted a survey to identify present and future natural gas consumers. As part of the survey, 2000 potential customers and plants were sampled, within a radius of 30 km from the transmission system, according to National Outline Plan 37.
The MNI estimates that demand for gas in 2014 both from IEC and/or IPPs as well as from industrial users will be between 10.5 – 12.5 bcm.
Other experts believe that consumption will reach 7 bcm by 2015 and 10 bcm by 2020-2025.
In a conference in December 2009, MNI Minister Uzi Landau stated that that since the new discoveries offshore Israel had been made that the forecast of consumption for 2030 and been revised to 15 bcm per year rather than then originally quoted figure of 10 bcm.
In 2010, Clal Finance says they have spent considerable time trying to decipher the Israel gas market for supply and demand and after an examination of IEC’s books and an analysis of their development plans for the next few years they believe that IEC is expected to double their demand for natural gas and that by 2013 IEC’s generation capacity generated by natural gas will grow from 3,600 MW at the end of 2009 to about 7,600 MW at the beginning of 2013. Clal believes that even if the coal power station D gets established it will not be available before 2015 and thus it will not influence the consumption of natural gas at the beginning of the decade. Clal believes that the Tamar gas field alone will be supplying 8 bcm by 2015, up from the previously anticipated 6 bcm by this date and that total demand will be between 12-14 bcm in 2014.
According to the Rand Corporation Report in 2010 entitled” How Large a Role for Natural Gas?”
Given the uncertainties about future demand, relative fuel prices, possible policies such as carbon emissions charges, and technological changes, we compared how several energy strategies would perform under widely varying conditions. In all cases, we assessed the strategies against three criteria of concern: total cost through 2030, greenhouse emissions in 2030, and land area required for generating electricity. We set acceptable thresholds for each criterion and judged the strategies based on how well they performed across 1,400 future states of the world that we generated by varying the assumptions about future demand, prices, technologies, policies, and external developments. The 1,400 scenarios of the future represent the uncertainty facing Israeli policymakers.
We began with simple strategies, observed how they failed in certain scenarios, and modified them to be more robust. We found that making the strategies inherently adaptive — that is, subject to modification based on external triggers — led to more-successful outcomes.
Initially, this process yielded seven strategies. The first (or “baseline”) strategy represents a typical approach to planning: It seeks an optimal outcome based upon forecasts of future demand and is not adaptive. We then tried three adaptive strategies. One (Least Cost) always seeks the least-cost solution. Another (Less Natural Gas) seeks to minimize the effects of possible cutoffs of natural-gas supply. The third (More Natural Gas) is more concerned with utilizing the domestic resource. Each of these three exists in two forms: one that allows for the construction of renewable, non–fossil-fuel generating capacity and for enhanced conservation, and another that does not.
We found strong evidence that managing electricity demand and using several energy sources, particularly non–fossil-fuel alternatives, raised the success rates. When demand is left unchecked and follows the high-growth assumptions of the baseline forecasts, it becomes quite difficult to choose any strategy that will meet the nation’s goals for cost, emissions, and land use.
Figure 4 compares the results of the baseline strategy with those of the three modified adaptive ones. We label the latter strategies LCC (Least Cost + Conservation), LessNGRC (Less Natural Gas + Renewables + Conservation), and MoreNGRC (More Natural Gas + Renewables + Conservation). The figure shows that MoreNGRC — a strategy that does not shy from expanded use of natural gas in Israel — could be both consistent with Israel’s interests and relatively robust across many plausible futures. MoreNGRC succeeds in meeting the cost threshold almost as well as LCC while at least matching the other strategies in emissions and land use. Israeli analysts will have access to the full database of scenario outcomes and will be able to explore this finding in greater detail.
In October 2010, Nira Shamir the head economist of Discount estimates that the total needs of the Israeli gas market for natural gas for the next 20 years will be 230 bcm compared to a potential of discoveries of about 700 bcm.
Dec 2010 – MNI press statement regarding growth of natural gas consumption in Israel – growth of 23% in natural gas consumption in the Israeli market in 2010 to 5.2 bcm during the year and the estimation is that growth will double in the next decade. Over 60% of this was supplied by Yam Tethys and the remainder by EMG. About 90% of this gas was consumed by IEC and the remainder by the Oil Refinery in Ashdod, the IPP by the water desalination plant in Ashkelon, by the Dead Sea Works, by the Hadera Paper Mills and by the Nesher Cement enterprise. In 2006, consumption is expected to reach 6 bcm with most of the growth coming due to the link up of new consumers in the north such as the Haifa p.s., the Alon Tavor p.s. and the Haifa Oil Refinery.
January 2011 – MNI Press statement – increase of 19% in the use of natural gas for the generation of electricity in 2010. MNI data shows that in 2010 56.5 TWH were produced, an increase of about 6% compared to 2009 which saw 53.3 TWh of electricity generation and all of the increase came from natural gas generated electricity, so that 20.4 TWhrs were produced by natural gas in 2010. Coal generation in 2010 was identical to 2009 and thus its share in the fuel mix decreased by 3.6%
Demand for natural gas in Israel:
• IEC
o Stations that are currently operating on natural gas: Eshkol (Ashdod); Reading, Gezer (Ramle), Hagit (Yokneam)
o Stations in the process of being built and/or connected to gas – Kfar Menachem, Ramat Hovav, Alon Tavor, Haifa
o The GoI approved the plans to construct D p.s. in Ashkelon to be a dual fuel (gas and coal station)
o About 10 additional power station are expected to be set up on natural gas for a total capacity of 5,000 MW
o The MNI minister ordered IEC to convert the Orot Rabin A (4 units of1,400 MW) from coal to natural gas as of 2015
• IPPs
o The GoI determined that 20% of electricity will come from natural gas operated IPPs: Dorad, Delek desalination plant in Ashkelon, Delek Ramat Gavriel, Delek Alon Tavor, Nesher, Ashdod Oil Refinery, Haifa Oil Refinery, Ramat Hovav IPP, Dalia Energy, Dor Alon Kiryat Gat and others.
• Heavy Industrial users
o Natural gas as raw material (Ashdod oil refinery, Hadera Paper Mills, Israel Chemicals, Agan Plant in Ashdod, Mahteshim, etc.)
• Natural Gas Distribution network
o Natural gas is planned to reach most of the industrial areas in the country via 5 distribution networks
2011 – Yam Tethys higher consumption by 31% and EMG lower by 67% (EMG delivered gas for 137 days in 2011) over 2010
IEC consumed 4.07 BCM of gas in 2011, 82% of Israel’s total gas consumption.
Two more IEC power stations were hooked up to the national gas pipeline network during the year: Haifa, and Alon Tavor in the Galilee.
Six private sector consumers also hooked up to the pipeline network last year: Israel Chemicals (ICL) units Rotem Amfert Negev and Periclase in the Negev; Haifa Chemicals Ltd’s plant at Mishor Rotem in the Negev; Oil Refineries (ORL) in Haifa; Makhteshim Agan Industries Ltd. plants in Ashdod and at Ramat Hovav in the Negev. By the end of 2011, 11 private sector consumers were hooked up to the gas pipeline network, and they consumed 900 million cubic meters of gas, 54% more than in 2010.
The injection rate is the volume of gas that can be put into storage over a period and is dependent on the physical attributions of each type of storage.
Geological storage is most flexible and can cope with maximum injection rates from just 10% full to 80%-90% full.
Adira Energy Ltd. is a listed Canadian domiciled, oil & gas exploration and development company.
The main investors in Adira are the BRM Group of Eli Barkat, the Lapidot Group of Helman Aldubi, the Investment Fund Quantum Partners, managed by Soros Fund Management that belongs to the billionaire George Soros who invested $6.5 million in the company
Adira Energy has been granted petroleum licenses on and offshore Israel:
“Eitan License” covering 31,060 acres (125,700 dunam) in the Hula Valley located in northern Israel with indications of natural gas*. License issued in December 2008 for initial 3 years renewable for a further 4 years.
“Gabriella License” covering 97,000 acres (392,000 dunam) approx. 10km offshore Israel between Netanya and Ashdod, with indications of oil. License issued in July 2009 for initial 3 years renewable for a further 4 years.
“Yitzhak License” covering 31,555 acres (127,700 dunam) approx. 17km offshore Israel between Hadera and Netanya, directly to the North of and contiguous to “Gabriella License”, with indications of oil*. License issued in October 2009 for initial 3 years renewable for a further 4 years.
In the June 2010 Petroleum Council, Adira was also granted part of the Samuel License. About the Samuel License – The Samuel License area is located adjacent to the coast of Israel and runs between Ashkelon and Bat Yam. The Samuel License is contiguous and south east of the Company’s Gabriella License. The license area is in shallow water with many of the key targets in less than 100 meters of water. Shallow water drilling significantly decreases drilling costs and operating risks and allows the Company to make use of jack up rigs. The prospects are located along the existing Mari B pipeline and close to shore providing a significant cost and time savings in the full development of this prospect. The Samuel License has been granted for an initial period of three years.
Such as the date that has been agreed upon for the start of the supply of natural gas in a GSA contract
Pressure and temperature transducers are used in borehole measurement tools such as are used in oil or gas wells. One characteristic of oil and gas wells is that often relatively high temperatures and pressures are encountered. These are pressure and/or temperature sensors
Petroleum Coke is produced in oil refineries as a by-product of the cracking of crude oil into a wide range of products. The crude is heated at high temperature and pressure in the presence of a catalyst to break down the heavy hydrocarbon molecules into lighter fractions; petroleum coke is essentially the solid residue of carbon left after all the liquid and gaseous products have been extracted. It represents less than 10% by weight of the original crude supplied to the refinery. The production of the lighter fractions (petroleum spirit, heating oil etc.) provides the economic justification for the process plant required; petroleum coke is a by-product of the process, but despite being a by-product it has a commercial value in various applications. Petroleum coke can be classified into various groupings: Anode grade coke is relatively pure and is used in dry cell batteries where it forms the anode; Fuel grade coke is used in power generation. It has a high calorific value and low ash content, but its high sulfur content raises environmental problems in the form of SOx emissions requiring flue gas treatment. At the same time, its low content of volatile compounds (all removed in the refinery) make it difficult to burn, and advanced FBC boilers are necessary; Calcined petroleum coke is produced by treating the green coke from the cracking process to drive off any remaining volatile compounds. This grade is mainly used for the electrodes in metallurgical arc furnaces, for example in aluminum production. However, this application requires low metal contents in the final anodes to avoid introducing impurities into the aluminum. The metal content of the petroleum coke depends on the quality of the crude oil feeding the refinery, and crudes may have to be blended to achieve the correct quality in the final coke (a more effective approach than trying to blend the final product). The major producer of petroleum coke in 2006 (UN figures) was the USA at 57,147,000 metric tons. This was well ahead of the next largest producer, China with production of 9,899,000 metric tons. Many other countries are also producers, but in much smaller quantities. The average June 2009 US price of petroleum coke for power generation was US$1.53/mmbtu. References:
