Category: Nieuws

India is in initial talks with the governments of other countries to export green hydrogen made in the South Asian nation, an official of its foreign ministry said on Thursday, even as challenges remain in adapting the clean-burning fuel.

Green hydrogen, derived from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, has the best environmental credentials since there are few or no carbon dioxide emissions.

It has been touted as key to decarbonising industries that rely on coal, gas and oil, but the costs of production have traditionally been much higher than other forms of hydrogen, while there are also uncertainties about the demand worldwide.

“We are in a position to make green hydrogen as our main source of energy in the future,” Prabhat Kumar, an additional secretary of the external affairs ministry, said at an industry event in New Delhi.

Kumar said India has plenty of sunshine which makes it viable for the country to produce green hydrogen, but did not specify a time frame for its export.

By Reuters, November 17, 2022

Pertamina oil and gas fields have 1 bil mt CO2 storage capacity to prepare commercial model for CCS hub in upstream assets.

Indonesia’s state-owned PT Pertamina and ExxonMobil signed a heads of agreement to develop carbon capture and storage, or CCS, technology in line with a joint study that found up to 1 billion mt of CO2 storage capacity in the national oil company’s oil and gas fields, according to a joint statement Nov. 12.

“This large CO2 capacity can permanently store CO2 emissions throughout Indonesia at the current average, up to the next 16 years,” the statement said.

The HOA was signed by Pertamina President and Director Nicke Widyawati and ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions Vice President and Indonesia President Irtiza Sayyed in Bali over the weekend.

The signing of the HOA follows a joint study agreement signed in the US May 13. By strengthening the collaboration, Pertamina and ExxonMobil will finalize and prepare a commercial model design for the development of a regional CCS hub in the working area of PT Pertamina Hulu Energi, which is tasked with managing Pertamina’s upstream oil and gas assets in the Kalimantan region.

Widyawati said the cooperation to develop CCS technology and decarbonization was in line with Pertamina’s efforts to support the government’s program to accelerate energy transition and reduce emissions by 29% by 2030.

She said the fastest way to transition to new, renewable energy, and decarbonization in Indonesia is through partnerships that will help meet three global challenges at once — technology, finance, and human capital.

The application of CCS technology, she said, is expected to play an important role in reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that contribute to global warming, climate change, ocean acidification, and loss of biodiversity.

“The development of CCS technology has a double impact, besides reducing emissions, while increasing national oil and gas production,” Widyawati said.

Pertamina is working on six CCS/CCUS projects by selecting fields that can be used as CO2 injection sites. The six potential lands are in various offshore areas of Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi.

“The development of CCS technology is in line with Pertamina’s commitment to implementing environmental, social and governance in all the company’s business lines to encourage business sustainability in the future,” Widyawati said.

Energy transition

Pertamina’s subsidiary Pertamina Power Indonesia and subsidiaries of Singapore’s Keppel and oil major Chevron Nov. 11 signed a joint agreement to explore green hydrogen and green ammonia development projects, using renewable energy from the island of Sumatra.

The joint study agreement intends to explore the feasibility of developing a green hydrogen facility, with a production capacity of at least 40,000 mt per year supported by at least 250-400 MW of geothermal energy at an early stage. The hydrogen production facility will have the potential to scale up to 80,000 mt and 160,000 mt annually, depending on the availability of geothermal energy and market demand.

Indonesia, which has the world’s fourth largest population, plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2060 and hydrogen and ammonia have been identified as low-carbon fuels as part of this plan. Ammonia can also be used to transport hydrogen and has the potential to replace bunker fuel as a low-carbon solution in the global maritime industry.

Indonesia has about 40% of the world’s geothermal resource potential and the opportunity to utilize this energy source to produce green ammonia or green hydrogen, according to a report from the International Energy Agency.

“The development of green hydrogen and green ammonia has an important role in Indonesia’s net-zero emissions roadmap. With this potential, we believe that Indonesia will also play a key role in green hydrogen production in Asia,” Pertamina NRE CEO Dannif Danusaputro said.

Pertamina Power & New Renewable Energy Subholding, or Pertamina NRE, has been mandated to oversee Pertamina’s energy transition, and develop decarbonization solutions, such as electric vehicles ecosystem, green hydrogen, and energy efficiency to achieve Pertamina group’s emissions reduction target.

By S&P Gobal, November 17, 2022

Oil prices slipped on Tuesday as recession concerns and worsening COVID-19 outbreaks in top crude importer China heightened fears of lower fuel demand.

Brent crude was down 93 cents, or 1%, at $96.99 a barrel by 1129 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was $1.16, or 1.3%, lower at $90.63.

Both benchmarks hit their highest since August on Monday amid reports that leaders in China were weighing an exit from the country’s strict COVID-19 restrictions.

However, new coronavirus cases have surged in Guangzhou and other Chinese cities, dimming the outlook for fewer restrictions.

“It is worth recalling that China’s zero tolerance towards flare-ups of COVID infections was the main reason behind last month’s sizeable downward revision in the world’s oil demand (by the International Energy Agency),” said PVM analyst Tamas Varga.

Meanwhile, the ICE exchange, home to the Brent benchmark, has increased the initial margin rates for front-month Brent crude futures by 4.92%, making maintaining a futures position more expensive from the close of business on Tuesday.

Market participants will also be eyeing U.S. CPI data on Friday, given high inflation and rising interest rates highlight the possibility of a global economic recession.

U.S. crude oil stocks were expected to have risen by about 1.1 million barrels last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.

The poll was conducted ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute due at 2130 GMT on Tuesday and the Energy Information Administration at 1530 GMT on Wednesday.

On the supply side, bullish signals remain in the near term.

The European Union ban on Russian oil, imposed in retaliation for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is set to start on Dec. 5 and will be followed by a halt on oil product imports in February. Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine “a special operation”.

By Reuters, November 16, 2022

South Africa and Indonesia will receive a combined $1 billion from the Climate Investment Funds to replace some of their coal-fired power plants with renewable energy facilities, part of global efforts to cut planet-warming emissions.

The allocation of $500 million each to the coal-dependent countries will come in the form of “concessional,” or low cost, finance, the World Bank-affiliated fund said in a statement Thursday. The money will come from the CIF’s Accelerating Coal Transition investment program.

In South Africa, the money will be used to close coal-fired electricity stations and replace them with renewable energy plants and battery storage systems, it said.

In Indonesia, CIF will work with state power provider PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara and private companies to accelerate the closure of 2,000 megawatts of coal-fired generation in five to 10 years and explore how that capacity can be replaced.

South Africa is the world’s 13th-biggest producer of greenhouse gases, with 45% of its annual 452 million tons of emissions coming from electricity generation. Indonesia is the 10th-biggest emitter. 

Almost all of South Africa’s energy is produced from coal by troubled state power company Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and the country suffers from regular blackouts.

“Over the next eight years, South Africa needs $60 billion in investments to effect the transition” away from coal, Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s environment minister, said. 

In South Africa alone, the closures funded by the deal will prevent the emission of 71 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, the same as taking 14 million gasoline-fueled cars off the road for a year, the CIF said.

The money allocated there is part of a $2.6 billion package being mobilized from public and private sources by the government to help pay for the clean energy transition, it added.

South Africa is also negotiating $8.5 billion in climate finance as part of an agreement with the US, UK, Germany, France and the European Union known as the Just Energy Transition Partnership.

Bloomberg by Antony Sguazzin, November 3, 2022

German is acquiring liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals as part of its efforts to diversify away from Russian gas.

It leased four floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) in May, capable of importing at least 5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of seaborne gas per year each. Two of them are due to become available this year.

Wilhelmshaven will become the first LNG hub and Brunsbuettel the second, to be developed by Uniper UN01.DE and RWE RWEG.DE, respectively.

The Elbe river port of Stade and Lubmin on the Baltic Sea will also receive an FSRU each.

Germany has also now formalised chartering of a fifth floating LNG ship for Wilhelmshaven, the economy ministry said on Oct. 25 for the first quarter of 2023.

WILHELMSHAVEN

Uniper in August received approval for the start of construction of an FSRU facility.

Later, facilities to import ammonia and set up an electrolysis plant for turning ammonia into clean hydrogen will be set up at the location.

BRUNSBUETTEL

An FSRU at Brunsbuettel is expected to deliver gas from the end of 2022 or early in 2023 and serve as a forerunner of a fixed LNG facility.

Dutch gas network operator Gasunie, which has a 40% stake in the FSRU project, is planning two related gas pipelines.

State bank KfW (KFW.UL) and RWE are stakeholders in the fixed facility. Shell (SHEL.L) has committed itself to some guaranteed purchases.

STADE

Project operator Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH), due to receive an FSRU to go into operation from the end of next year, previously launched invitations to market participants to book regasification capacity at a planned land-based hub.

This could materialise in 2026.

It is backed by gas network company Fluxys (FLUX.BR), investment firm Partners Group (PGHN.S), logistics group Buss and chemicals company Dow (DOW.N).

EnBW (EBKG.DE) has committed itself as a buyer.

Applications for the terminal and port have been submitted. A final investment decision is expected next year.

LUBMIN

The operators of the state-leased FSRU destined for Lubmin expect it to be operational at the end of 2023.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck paid a visit on Sept. 19 and said the government would try to source LNG from the United Arab Emirates, among other possible origins.

Reuters by Vera Ecket, October 31, 2022

The United Arab Emirates believes that OPEC+ made the correct technical choice when it agreed to cut production and the unanimous decision had nothing to do with politics, energy minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said on Tuesday.

His comments came after several members of the oil producers group endorsed the steep cut to output targets agreed this month after the White House accused Saudi Arabia of coercing some other nations into supporting the move, a charge Riyadh denies.

“We fully trust and believe in the technical credibility of OPEC and OPEC+. We always meet and discuss the facts based on our analysis of the market and how we can all contribute to taking the right measures to balance the supply and demand, and that decision is always taken unanimously and the last decision was taken on the same logic,” Mazrouei told reporters.

“I would like to reiterate that there is nothing political about any decision we take in OPEC.”

Coming ahead of November mid-term elections in the United States, the move drew sharp criticism from the Biden administration which said there would be “consequences” for U.S. ties with Riyadh.

The United States has stressed that the cut would boost Russia’s foreign earnings and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

Mazrouei said the OPEC+ decision stabilised prices, rather than increasing them, adding that it was lack of stability that was driving investors away.

“Prices have been stabilising and actually if you look at October 2021 before anything — before all the crises, the geopolitical ones — you would see we are in the same price environment,” the Emirati minister said.

He voiced concern that many oil producers had lost capacity due to lack of investment.

Asked if the UAE plans to ask for a higher baseline as it works to build its own capacity to 5 million barrels per day by 2030, Mazrouei said there is a mechanism for any country to raise that request.

By Reuters, October 28, 2022