Oil giant Shell feels heat over giant $21 billion Prelude floating LNG plant

When Dutch-Anglo oil giant Shell decided to build a massive floating gas factory known as Prelude in 2011, it was billed as the dawn of a new era for the industry. Australia was midway through a once-in-a-lifetime $300 billion splurge that would make the country the world’s biggest producer of super-chilled, shipped gas. Floating gas plants were supposed to be the logical evolution, vacuuming up gas wherever they went and making fortunes for shareholders and taxpayers. But barely a decade later, Prelude has been racked by cost and time blowouts,…

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Moody’s Forecasts Record Oil And Gas Profits, Free Cash Flow

Moody’s Investor Service has upgraded its outlook for the global energy industry from “neutral” to “positive”, forecasting “record profit and free cash flow” for exploration and production companies in 2022, thanks to a combination of strong commodity prices and spending discipline. The ratings agency expects oil and gas supply constraints to keep prices high for twelve to eighteen months. Beyond that, Moody’s said the “pace of improvement” with regard to earnings will start to slow by next year. It’s not only exploration and production companies that are expected to show…

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EU States Mull Deal on Emergency Rules to Fill Gas Storage

European Union countries will this week debate a possible deal to share out the costs of buying gas to fill storage and build a supply buffer ahead of next winter, according to a draft document seen by Reuters. EU countries are negotiating proposed rules that would require them to fill their gas storage to at least 90% of capacity by Nov. 1 each year from 2023 and 80% this year – an attempt to reduce the leverage of Russia, which supplies around 40% of EU gas. The proposal had worried…

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Guddu power plant fiasco: PD, CPGCL BoD adopt different stances

Power Division and Board of Directors (BoD) of Central Power Generation Company Limited (CPGCL) are reportedly challenging each other’s stance on 747-MW Guddu Combined Cycle Plant damaged last year due to undoubted negligence, well informed sources told Business Recorder. The inquiries conducted so far are holding M/s GE and plant’s staff responsible for the damage of billions of rupees. Power Division has also held the Board of CPGCL responsible for not taking timely action against those responsible. Power Division wrote a letter to the Board on March 31, 2022, operating part…

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Deregulated power sector to pave way for reasonable tariffs

Liberalising of the power sector will prove to be a game-changer as it will do away with monopoly to encourage competition and reasonable tariffs, a top government official said on Tuesday. Tauseef Farooqi, chairman of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) said the authority approved the detailed design and 18-month implementation plan of the competitive trading bilateral contract market (CTBCM) that will usher in a competitive environment in power sector. The government initiated financial health assessment of power distribution companies to know their credit worthiness. The power sector is…

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