Photo caption: BP logo. Credit: Reuters
BP’s (BP.L) head of Trinidad and Tobago said the oil and gas major is still interested in cross-border opportunities with Venezuela, despite the government in Caracas suspending all bilateral energy agreements with its neighbor last year.
BP and Shell (SHEL.L) had been granted licenses by the U.S. and Venezuela to develop offshore natural gas projects at the maritime border, where vast reserves have been found.
“There is an industrial logic that says there are resources across the border where people are perhaps more cautious to invest, right next to our underutilized assets like Atlantic LNG and Point Lisas,” BP’s David Campbell said.
“It is an obvious project to have,” Campbell added in reference to Cocuina-Manakin, the gas project BP and Venezuela’s state-run PDVSA had been planning.
Cocuina-Manakin has gas deposits that extend into the waters of both countries, so a joint development is needed to begin output, after the exploration phase was completed years ago.
About 10% of all of BP’s capital spending worldwide went to energy projects in Trinidad last year, Campbell said during an energy conference in the country’s capital Port of Spain.—Reuters
U.S. Natural Gas Prices Hit $6 For First Time Since 2022 amid Big Freeze
U.S. natural gas prices on Monday extended their remarkable 70% rally from last week as the big freeze pushes heating and power demand to winter records.
Early on Monday, the front-month U.S. natural gas benchmark price had jumped by 14% to above the threshold of $6 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) as gas demand surged to very high levels. This was the first time since 2022 that the price of U.S. natural gas has soared above $6 per MMBtu, and nearly double the price at the start of last week.
The major storm also led to shut-ins of about 10% of U.S. natural gas production amid curtailments and freeze-offs in major gas-producing states, including Texas, according to data by BNEF.
Forecasts for this week suggest wind chills as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit (-45.56 degrees Celsius) across the eastern two-thirds of the United States.
With supply reduced and demand skyrocketing, U.S. natural gas prices have staged their strong rally in the past week since the 1990s.
Gas demand is very high, and PJM Interconnection, the biggest grid operator in the U.S. serving most Atlantic and Midwest regions, has committed to buy electricity from gas-fired power plants until the end of the month in a rare move aimed at securing an uninterrupted supply during a cold blast.
PJM will procure electricity until January 31 and not, as is the normal practice, on a daily basis, Bloomberg reports, citing employees of the grid operator.
The winter freeze in the U.S. could be felt across global gas markets as pipeline deliveries to LNG export plants on the Gulf Coast slumped to a one-year low amid curtailments ahead of the storm.
“Whether this disruption spills over into higher prices in Europe and Asia will depend on the extent of any lasting freeze-related damage” analysts at Saxo Bank said in a Monday note.
=== Oilprice.com ===
