Venezuela gas pipeline rupture slashes production

Spanish Market: Crude oil, Natural gas
22/03/21

Venezuelan state-owned PdV has shut in about a fifth of its natural gas production because of a 20 March pipeline rupture that forced the closure of the Pigap 2 high-pressure compression complex.

The complex shut down after the pipeline ruptured, disrupting up to 560mn cf/d of gas production from the mature Furrial and Quiriquire fields in the eastern state of Monagas. The closure also impacts crude production in the eastern fields where the gas is re-injected.

The incident took down about 19pc of PdV's current total gas production of some 3bn cf/d, according to a senior official with PdV gas subsidiary PdV Gas. Most of PdV's gas production is already flared.

Repairs could take up to six weeks, according to a PdV incident report.

A PdV upstream manager in Monagas and two oil union officials working in the Furrial area blamed pipeline corrosion and years of insufficient maintenance.

A corroded section of the line cracked as PdV was attempting to increase the volume of gas transported from Furrial to Pigap 2 where it would be compressed for re-injection, the company manager said.

The explosion sparked a fire that blazed for over an hour until PdV shut down gas flows through the pipeline.

Pigap 2 was built by Williams International and commissioned in 2001. Late former president Hugo Chavez expropriated Pigap 2 in mid-2009.

Venezuela's oil ministry blamed a terrorist attack, an allegation routinely made by the government to explain frequent oil industry breakdowns.

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10/10/24

Strike starts at Chevron Australia's LNG sites: Update

Adds comment from Altrad spokesperson in paragraph 3 Sydney, 10 October (Argus) — Members of Australian LNG workers' union the Offshore Alliance (OA) that are employed by companies owned by engineering firm Altrad are undertaking protected industrial action (PIA) at Chevron Australia's two LNG facilities. About 140 gas maintenance workers began rolling stoppages and work bans today because of dissatisfaction with negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement, the OA said. The PIA can occur for 30 days from when the results of a union members' ballot was declared on 2 October, and may be extended if agreed by the Fair Work Commission. Altrad remains committed to the continuing bargaining process, a spokesperson for the firm said on 10 October, promising to "continue to seek an equitable outcome to negotiations" in the interests of employees and Altrad. Workers are demanding union rates and conditions on every offshore and onshore oil and gas facility, the OA said, promising to push back against baseline workplace agreements presently in place. Striking staff include technicians, scaffolders, riggers, painters and plasterers working for Altrad at the Chevron's 8.9mn t/yr Wheatstone LNG and 15.6mn t/yr Gorgon LNG facilities in Western Australia state, as well as Wheatstone's offshore platform. Chevron Australia is aware Altrad employees have started industrial action, but said no impact to production are expected. "Given the nature of the work undertaken by Altrad and the mitigations in place, it is not anticipated there will be any impact to LNG and domestic gas production nor to any critical business activities at our facilities," a Chevron spokesperson said on 10 October. The dispute comes almost 12 months after Chevron reached an agreement with the OA — formed by the Australian Workers' Union and Maritime Union of Australia — on three deals regarding pay and conditions at its LNG terminals and upstream facilities. By Tom Major Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Altrad Australia's workers strike at Chevron LNG sites

10/10/24

Altrad Australia's workers strike at Chevron LNG sites

Sydney, 10 October (Argus) — Members of Australian LNG workers' union the Offshore Alliance (OA) that are employed by companies owned by engineering firm Altrad are undertaking protected industrial action at Chevron Australia's two LNG facilities. About 140 gas maintenance workers began rolling stoppages and work bans today because of dissatisfaction with negotiations for a new enterprise bargaining agreement, the OA said. The workers include technicians, electrical and instrumentation technicians, scaffolders, riggers, painters and plasterers working for Altrad at the Chevron's 8.9mn t/yr Wheatstone LNG and 15.6mn t/yr Gorgon LNG facilities in Western Australia state, as well as Wheatstone's offshore platform. Chevron Australia is aware employees have started industrial action, a spokesperson said. But the firm does not anticipate any impact to LNG and domestic gas production or any critical business activities, given the nature of the work undertaken by Altrad and mitigations in place. Altrad was contacted for comment, but has yet to respond. Workers are demanding union rates and conditions on every offshore and onshore oil and gas facility, the OA said, promising to push back against baseline workplace agreements presently in place. The dispute comes almost 12 months after Chevron reached an agreement with the OA — formed by the Australian Workers' Union and Maritime Union of Australia — on three deals regarding pay and conditions at the LNG terminals and upstream facilities. By Tom Major Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Hurricane Milton closes in on Florida: Update

09/10/24

Hurricane Milton closes in on Florida: Update

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US September OCTG, line pipe imports may rise

09/10/24

US September OCTG, line pipe imports may rise

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Finnish, Baltic gas demand hits five-month high in Sep

09/10/24

Finnish, Baltic gas demand hits five-month high in Sep

London, 9 October (Argus) — Combined Finnish and Baltic gas demand in September was the highest of any month since April, as stronger gas-fired power generation continued driving consumption in Latvia and Finland. Combined demand in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania last month rose to 2.61TWh from 2.49TWh in August, although it was still lower than 2.77TWh a year earlier and even further below the average of roughly 4.3TWh in 2018-21 ( see graph, data and download ). This was a fourth consecutive monthly increase after demand hit a near two-year low in May. Demand increasing in May-September is an unusual pattern, as pre-2022 consumption in the region tended to decline over the summer. The power sector continued to drive regional demand, with gas-fired output across the four countries totalling 220GWh in September, just below April's 228GWh and well above other summer months, data from research institute Fraunhofer ISE show ( see gas-fired output graph ). The call on gas-fired assets strengthened because of Finnish nuclear outages. The 507MW unit 1 at Loviisa has been off line since 31 August, and the latest update from the operator said it would not return until 9 October, a date that has already been delayed several times. The 890MW unit 2 at Olkiluoto was also unavailable, on 9 September-6 October, while output from the 1.6GW unit 3 at Olkiluoto was limited. Lower nuclear generation in Finland, which normally exports to the Baltics, spurred demand for gas-fired generation. The Inkoo LNG terminal underwent short-term works, which took it off line on the 18-19 September gas days, but sendout held at zero on 18-22 September. During that time, Finland switched to net imports of 32 GWh/d from Estonia through the Balticconnector from net exports of 9 GWh/d earlier in that month and 50 GWh/d in all of August. The large gap between LNG deliveries on 28 August and 21 September was probably the reason for the low sendout in the first three weeks of that month ( see data and download ), although Inkoo sendout was weak even before the maintenance, averaging 40 GWh/d compared with 79 GWh/d in August. Lower southbound flows from Finland cut into injections at Latvia's Incukalns facility, which fell to zero on the 18-22 September gas days before rebounding as Inkoo sendout increased. Stocks at Incukalns ended the month at about 19.3TWh, holding below the 20.9TWh of a year earlier but well above the five-year average of 16.1TWh in 2017-21. Prices on the regional GET Baltic exchange averaged €40.37/MWh in July, down by 5pc on the month and 4pc on the year. Firms traded 434GWh on the exchange, all of which was on the daily market. Lithuania accounted for 45pc of trades, followed by the joint Latvian-Estonian market at 36pc and Finland with the remaining 19pc, regional gas exchange GET Baltic said. 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Inkoo received the 145,000m³ Arctic Princess carrier on 1 October, and another delivery is scheduled for 13 October. But sendout from Klaipeda will probably increase, as it received its first cargo of the month on 9 October and awaits two more on 16 October and 25 October. This could cause flows on the Latvia-Lithuania border to flip, with Kiemenai so far flowing towards Lithuania at 28 GWh/d on 1-8 October, compared with 60 GWh/d of net flows towards Latvia last month. And the 507MW nuclear unit 1 at Loviisa is not scheduled to return until late on 9 October. Similarly, 155MW of the 735MW Olkiluoto unit 2 also will be unavailable, on 6 October-25 May, because of "rotor limitation", according to an urgent market message, having only just returned from its previous outage on 6 October. But despite limited Finnish nuclear generation, strong renewable generation has also restricted demand for gas-fired output in the Finnish power mix in the first week of October. By Brendan A'Hearn September gas consumption by country GWh Gas-fired power generation by country GWh Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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