Blog - Page 11

AUSTRALIA AT THE FOREFRONT OF DEVELOPING A HUGE HYDROGEN EXPORT INDUSTRY

Posted in Hydrogen on

The Australian government released the National Hydrogen Strategy (the Strategy) in November 2019 and has continued to outline its support for hydrogen through the First Low-Emissions Technology Statement, released in September 2020. The government has stated its commitment to reducing Australia’s emissions through technology investment, rather than through carbon pricing, with the Technology Investment Roadmap a core element of its long-term emissions reduction strategy.

  • The government has taken a technology-neutral approach and the Strategy refers to ‘clean’ hydrogen, which includes both green and blue hydrogen.
  • The Strategy is export oriented. Building on Australia’s unique assets and its track record in energy exports, it aims to build large-scale supply chains to make Australia a leading exporter of hydrogen energy and technologies, and one of the top three exporters to the promising Asian markets by 2030.
  • While primarily focused on the export market, the Strategy looks to initially build a strong domestic hydrogen sector that will underpin Australia’s export capabilities. Hydrogen demand will be concentrated in large hydrogen hubs and will focus on four applications:  its use in transport, as industrial feedstock, blended in gas networks and for electricity grid support/energy storage.
  • One of the government’s priorities and a key success factor for Australia’s hydrogen industry is to reduce the production cost of hydrogen below AUD2/kgH2 ­— US$1.4 (‘H2 under $2’).
  • From 2018 to May 2021, at least AUD1.5 billion (US$ 1.1 billion) have been awarded or committed to progressing clean hydrogen projects. Support is also provided to CCUS technologies and the creation of CCUS hubs, with the goal of reducing the cost of CO₂ compression, hub transport, and storage for CCS below AUD20/tCO₂ (US$14).

Quarterly report – Q2 2021 – International natural gas prices

Posted in International Gas Prices, Natural Gas Prices on
  • In a context of post-Covid economic recovery and an induced rebound of the prices of all energy commodities, the second quarter 2021 saw an unprecedented and steady rally of international spot prices, driven by growing European and Asian gas demand. 
  • In Europe, low gas inventories, an unseasonable and persistent cold weather as well as the highest recorded carbon prices have propelled the TTF price, which provided a strong upside to Asian spot prices. 
  • During the second quarter, Asian spot prices rose even faster than European spot prices because of surging Chinese LNG demand, rising oil prices and LNG supply outages. This results in a growing price premium to the European price. During the second half of June, Northeast Asian spot LNG prices have jumped by $2 to $13/MBtu at the end of the month, more than $10/MMBtu higher than they were this time last year and their highest levels since 2014 for the same summer period. 

Will Gas Be the Game-Changer for Oman’s Transition to a Brand New Era?

Posted in CEDIGAZ Insights on

The latest report from CEDIGAZ delves into Oman’s gas and LNG success story since the late 2010s. The sultanate’s gas revival since the start-up of the Khazzan tight gas and condensate field in late 2017, combined with renewed exploration momentum on the upstream front, has opened up new possibilities for its domestic gas market and its role as one of the longest-established LNG exporters in the Gulf region and in the world.

The report examines the opportunities and the risks linked to its gas and wider energy fundamentals, be it in terms of supply and demand, policy, upstream & LNG strategy and interplay with other fuels.

Increased domestic production, combined with improved gas demand management especially in its power sector, has allowed the country to change its supply and demand balance at home and revive its LNG business, while a few years ago, Oman had contemplated mothballing some its existing liquefaction capacity.