New base 753 special 22 december 2015

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NewBase 22 December 2015 - Issue No. 753 Edited & Produced by: Khaled Al Awadi

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UAE: Dewa receives requests for third solar plant project WAM + Gulf News

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) has received 21 Requests for Qualification (RFQs) from international energy companies and consortia for the 800MW 3rd project of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park based on the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model.

A Requests for Qualification is the pre-qualification stage of a procurement process.

This comes shortly after His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, inaugurated the second project of the Solar Park early this month. The project will be operational in April 2017. Last September, Dewa received 95 Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from international energy companies. The project tender is expected to be released in January 2016.




“The high interest demonstrated by international companies to participate in the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park reflects the global trust in Dewa and Dubai in general. At Dewa, we work to achieve the objectives set by the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, launched by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to make Dubai a global centre for clean energy and green economy. The strategy also aims to provide 7 per cent of Dubai’s energy from clean sources by 2020, 25 per cent by 2030 and 75 per cent by 2050,” said Saeed Mohammad Al Tayer, managing director & CEO of Dewa.

“At Dewa, we work to consolidate the foundations of sustainability in Dubai to achieve our vision to become a sustainable innovative world class utility, and draw a roadmap for a brighter and happier future in Dubai. We are steadily increasing our dependence on clean and renewable energy sources. Our resolve reflects the determination of our wise leadership who support the diversification of the energy mix to ensure its security and build a sustainable future for generations to come,” added Al Tayer.

The Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is the largest single-site solar project in the world. It will produce 1,000MW by 2020 and 5,000MW by 2030, with total investment of Dh50 billion.

This supports Dubai Government’s green initiatives to reduce carbon emissions. The solar park includes an innovation centre that includes a number of research and development laboratories in clean energy and will oversee research and development projects, with a total investment of Dh500 million. The solar park hosts a number of world-class facilities.

These include a solar-testing facility to study and evaluate the performance, long-term stability and reliability of the panels under actual local weather conditions. It also collaborates with international organisations on soiling and dust mitigation on photovoltaic equipment. The tests will set a baseline for the development of specifications, tests and standards for photovoltaic equipment in the region.




UK pushes on with shale gas development as North Sea takes a battering Angela Jameson, Foreign Correspondent, writes from London

With the Paris climate change summit in the rear-view mirror, big questions remain over how much the United Kingdom will rely on renewable energy in the future and how much it will look to unconventional fossil fuels, or shale gas.

Britain awarded another 132 new onshore oil and gas exploration licences this month, giving developers access to more land for shale gas fracking for the first time in seven years. Britain is estimated to have substantial amounts of gas trapped in underground shale rocks, and the prime minister David Cameron has pledged to go “all out” to extract these reserves, to help offset declining North Sea oil and gas output.

The latest awards conclude Britain’s first onshore oil and gas licensing round in seven years, according to Reuters. Overall, the government awarded 159 licences and 75 per cent of the blocks covered were related to shale gas or oil, the government said.

Companies that obtained new licences include the established shale gas companies IGas, Egdon Resources, Cuadrilla Resources and Ineos, which won 21 new licences. “We currently import about half of our gas needs, but by 2030 that could be as high as 75 per cent,” said the energy minister Andrea Leadsom.

“That’s why we’re encouraging investment in our shale gas exploration, so we can add new sources of home-grown supply to our real diversity of imports.” Catherine Howard, a planning partner at the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, said: “The real challenge companies face is obtaining planning permission from local planning authorities, as the refusal of Cuadrilla’s applications in June demonstrated.”




Cuadrilla was refused planning permission for two shale gas projects this year, but the government has since announced it would use new powers to make its own decision on the matter.

After a year of research, a task force on shale gas chaired by Chris Smith, who served in Tony Blair’s cabinet from 1997 to 2001, recently concluded that the UK can safely develop a shale gas industry and that exploratory drilling should proceed.

“It is only when we have a better understanding of how much gas could be recovered in the UK that the public can make an informed decision about supporting it,” Lord Smith said. “We know roughly where there are shale rocks and where there is likely to be shale gas, but exactly how much is genuinely recoverable no one knows at the moment.

“I am convinced that fracking can be carried out in the UK safely and usefully,” he said. “As a country we should get behind the creation of jobs if it is done responsibly. In fact, the money the government makes from shale could be spent on developing a renewables industry, helping our planet in the long term.”

Analysis published in 2013 by the Institute of Directors estimated shale gas production could generate 74,000 jobs and attract investment of £3.7 billion (Dh20.2bn) a year at its peak. The shale gas task force report says that companies

should get on with drilling before extolling the benefits.

This is not surprising, as the task force is funded by five companies with commercial interests in fracking, including Cuadrilla and the British Gas owner Centrica. However, Lord Smith insists that the funding was accepted on the basis that his team’s research would be independent.

Despite the global fall in oil and gas prices, there is still considerable interest in the potential for Britain’s own sources of shale, says Corin Taylor, the director of Ukoog, the industry body that represents would-be shale explorers.

“There’s a good range of companies that are interested from both overseas and the UK, both large and small. Companies such as Ineos – the chemicals group – can also see the value of having a reliable source of gas close to their plants and have bought into both joint ventures and licences,” Mr Taylor says.

Ineos is probably the biggest cheerleader for shale gas, among the large energy users. In August, it won three exploration licences itself, all in the Midlands. It also has licences in Scotland. The Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe wants to kick-start fracking in the UK and intends to nullify local opposition by handing out 6 per cent of the revenue from oil and gas fracked by his firm.

He estimates his company could give away £2.5bn across Britain. With North Sea gas reserves in decline, the UK has been a net gas importer since 2013. By 2030, 75 per cent of the country’s gas will be imported unless the shale gas industry gets off the ground.

Mr Taylor says that low oil prices may even help those in the nascent shale gas industry. “We are still in an exploration phase as an industry and not expecting to make profits in the next few years.




Lower oil prices make it slightly cheaper to explore, because contractor rates are cheaper. If anything, it makes an exploration phase more attractive.”

The company furthest ahead in the UK at this stage is Cuadrilla, which wants to begin hydraulic fracking in Lancashire. It would begin by fracking – forcing water into rock layers to force out natural gas that is trapped there – to test the flow of gas so it can see how much of it can be brought to the surface.

The UK government recently confirmed that it would make the final decision on whether the Lancashire fracking could go ahead after local politicians objected to the company’s plans. That could mean that fracking begins there within months.

To achieve the Paris commitment, European governments including the UK are switching from coal-fired power stations to gas and renewable power generation. But the UK recently found itself short of baseload generation – on a particularly

windless day in October – and had to make an emergency call on power producers to bring more power to the grid, underlining the shortcomings of renewables. “If you compare world demand in 2040, with that of 2013, you will see demand for gas going up by 15 per cent and coal demand going down by 36.5 per cent,” says Mr Taylor.

“Gas is part of the solution.”

With North Sea gas production falling rapidly from its peak about 10 years ago, that demand will be replaced in the UK by imported gas, unless the country can find its own on-land sources. Ms Rudd has already said that British coal-fired power stations will close in 2025 and the UK’s fleet of nuclear power stations are coming to the end of their lives, with new replacements not expected to come online until 2025 at the earliest.

That is why people see the development of a shale gas industry as necessary to strengthen the UK’s energy security. Shale, many analysts envision, will replace gas imports from Norway and less stable regions like Ukraine.

Shale gas is also expected to replace liquid natural gas, which since 2009, has mostly been imported to the UK from Qatar. As Lord Smith points out, the carbon emissions from LNG are much higher than those from a home-grown shale industry.

There was been a 64 per cent increase of LNG imports into the UK between January and May this year compared to the same period last year. LNG accounted for 13 per cent of Britain’s gas supply during the period this year.

Meanwhile, a government decision in November to scrap a £1bn programme to fund exploration of carbon-capture storage further complicates the industry’s sustainability options. Without this, Lord Smith says, fracking for shale gas can only be a short- to medium-term energy solution.

“If a shale gas industry begins to develop at scale, carbon capture and storage will become essential,” he says, calling the government’s move “absurd”.




French power station generates electricity from cheese The Telegraph

Generating electricity from cheese could be the plot of an Asterix comic book, but that is exactly what is happening at a new power plant in the French Alps. A by-product of Beaufort cheese, skimmed whey, is converted into biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, at the plant in Albertville, in Savoie

Bacteria are added to the whey to produce the gas, which is then used to generate electricity that is sold to the energy company EDF. “Whey is our fuel,” said François Decker of Valbio, the company that designed and built the power station, which opened in October. “It’s quite simply the same as the ingredient in natural yoghurt.”

After full-fat milk is used to make Beaufort cheese, whey and cream are left over. The cream is taken to make ricotta cheese, butter and protein powder, which is used as a food supplement. The residual skimmed whey is then placed in a tank with bacteria, where natural fermentation produces methane in the same way that the gas is produced in cows’ stomachs.

The gas is then fed through an engine that heats water to 90 degrees C and generates electricity. The plant will produce about 2.8 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, enough electricity to supply a community of 1,500 people, Mr Decker told Le Parisien newspaper.

It is not the first cheese-based power station, but one of the largest. Valbio built its first prototype plant 10 years ago beside an abbey where monks have made cheese since the 12th century. Since then, about 20 other small-scale plants have been built in France, other European countries and Canada. More units are planned in Australia, Italy, Brazil and Uruguay.

In Somerset, the family-owned cheesemakers, Wyke Farms, generate their own electricity from waste cheese, cow manure and leftover crops. The mixture is poured into biodigester vessels that generate enough electricity to make the cheese producer self-sufficient.

Albertville in Savoie, France




China: Chevron Strikes China LNG Supply Deal Chevron Corporation announced Monday it has signed preliminary agreement to supply LNG to China Huadian Green Energy Co., Ltd. Once the deal is finalised, China Huadian Green Energy is expected to receive up to 1 million metric tons per annum (MTPA) of LNG over 10 years starting in 2020, the company said in a statement.

The gas will be sourced from Chevron’s Australian projects. "This is an important step in the commercialization of Chevron's natural gas holdings in Australia and the establishment of our global liquefied natural gas portfolio," said Pierre Breber, executive vice president, Chevron Gas and Midstream. "As Chevron continues to grow into one of the world's largest LNG suppliers, this agreement represents further progress and diversification of our sales portfolio."

China Huadian Green Energy Co. Ltd. is a subsidiary of China Huadian Group, which is one of the largest state-owned power generation companies and has a leading role in gas-fired power generation in China.

Chevron is developing the Gorgon LNG project in Australia. The project combines the development of the Gorgon Field and the nearby Jansz-Io Field. Facilities being built on Barrow Island include an LNG facility with three processing units capable of producing 15.6 MTPA of LNG, a carbon dioxide injection project and a domestic gas plant.

The US energy major is also developing the Wheatstone project as an LNG and domestic gas operation near Onslow, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.The project's initial capacity is expected to be 8.9 MTPA of LNG. The project also includes a domestic gas plant.




NewBase 22 December - 2015 Khaled Al Awadi

NewBase For discussion or further details on the news below you may contact us on +971504822502 , Dubai , UAE

Oil Has a Reality Check for Those Elated by the Climate Deal Bloomberg - Alex Nussbaum

For anyone elated by the climate-change accord in Paris, the commodities markets have a reality check for you.

World leaders may have vowed to wean the world from fossil fuels, but prices for oil, coal and natural gas are at their lowest in years. Crude will probably decline even more with the U.S. ending its 40-year ban on oil exports.

So is that bad news for people hoping to switch the world to cleaner fuels?

The answer is pretty complicated. The International Energy Agency in May analyzed the impact on greenhouse-gas emissions if global oil prices remain below $50 a barrel for the rest of the decade, pulling down coal and natural gas prices as well.

Oil price special

coverage




The results, shown above, were mixed: total carbon dioxide emissions from coal will go down by almost 6 gigatons from 2014 through 2040, largely because low prices will accelerate the shift to cleaner gas for producing electricity.

But inexpensive fossil fuels will also undercut sales of electric vehicles. They boost the cost of renewable-power subsidies, encourage the use of oil for chemical feedstocks and, most critically, make the payoff less attractive for efficiency upgrades.

By 2040, energy-related emissions in a cheap-oil era would be just 0.3 percent higher, an additional 3 gigatons -- if governments stick to the pollution-cutting pledges formalized in Paris.

And progress would come with a higher cost: nations would miss out on $800 billion of savings by avoiding improvements in cars, trucks, aircraft and other equipment. “A key risk," the agency warned, “is that the world

locks in a less efficient and less climate-friendly capital stock that commits to higher long-term emissions.”It’s still an unlikely scenario, the IEA said, given the pain that sustained low prices would inflict on oil producers. But if cheap fossil fuels are here to stay, it’ll be up to governments to hold the line on the promises made in Paris.

“Many analysts would take the classical view that a long period of low oil prices would prompt higher demand,” said Bill Hare, chief executive officer at Climate Analytics, a Berlin-based research group. “It depends very much on what governments do to counteract that.”




Brent Oil Slides to 11-Year Low as Producers Seen Worsening Glut Brent crude slumped to the lowest price since mid-2004 amid speculation suppliers from the Middle East to the U.S. will exacerbate a record glut as they fight for market share.

Futures fell as much as 2.2 percent in London after a 2.8 percent drop last week. Producers are focusing on reducing costs amid the price decline, Qatar Energy Minister Mohammed Al Sada said Sunday at a gathering of Arab oil-exporting nations in Cairo. Drillers in the U.S. put the most rigs back to work since July, adding 17, data from Baker Hughes Inc. showed.

Oil has collapsed below levels last seen during the 2008 global financial crisis on signs the market’s oversupply will worsen. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries effectivelyabandoned output limits at a Dec. 4 meeting, while the U.S. on Friday passed legislation that lifted a 40-year ban on crude exports.

“There hasn’t been any significant signs of a pick-up in demand and we haven’t seen any meaningful cuts to production,” Ric Spooner, a chief analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone. “Nothing has really changed in the oil market over the past couple of months apart from the price.”

Brent for February settlement slid as much as 82 cents to $36.06 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, the lowest level in intraday trade since July 2, 2004. The contract was at $36.17 at 7:42 a.m. London time. Prices are down 37 percent this year, set for a third annual loss. Drill Rigs

West Texas Intermediate for January delivery, which expires Monday, was 36 cents lower at $34.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It dropped 22 cents to $34.73 on Friday, the lowest close since February 2009. The more active February contract was down 44 cents at $35.62. Total volume was about six times the 100-day average.




There’s no need to be pessimistic about oil prices, Qatar’s Al Sada said at the meeting of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, which includes seven OPEC members. Crude is set to climb from current “very low” levels that are hurting producers, Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said, without predicting when prices may rebound.

The number of rigs targeting oil increased to 541, Baker Hughes, an oilfield-services provider, reported on its website Friday. The Permian Basin in West Texas led the gains with five machines put back to work. U.S. crude stockpiles have expanded to 490.7 million barrels, more than 130 million above the five-year average, Energy Information Administration data showed last week. U.S. Exports

The spread between Brent and New York futures has shrunk to the narrowest in 11 months amid speculation that the U.S. plan to allow domestic oil to be shipped overseas may ease the nation’s oversupply. The European benchmark crude was at a premium of 66 cents a barrel to the February WTI contract.

U.S. producers including Continental Resources Inc. and ConocoPhillips had been pressing for an end to restrictions on exports of most raw, unprocessed crude. While repealing the ban could allow unfettered access to supplies, driving the most important change in the country’s oil policy in more than a generation, buyers in the east may have a limited appetite for the quality of cargoes on offer.

Many Asian refiners are geared to process heavier, cheaper crude with higher sulfur content. The lighter and cleaner shale oil from the U.S. has also got about a third farther to come than alternative supplies from the Middle East, representing additional shipping costs.




NewBase Special Coverage

News Agencies News Release 01 Dec.. 2015

American LNG Exporters Turn to Europe as Asian Demand Sputters Bloomberg - Tim Loh

For years, U.S. gas companies looking to export liquefied natural gas dreamed of a booming Asia.

Now, with demand there falling and the first shipment weeks away, Europe has emerged as the

unlikely savior of American LNG.

European gas production is down and countries there want to get more of the heating and power plant fuel from places other than Russia –- a major supplier, but one that’s brought plenty of headaches.

“It’s going to make a lot more sense for the U.S. gas to flow into the European market,” said Jason Bordoff, director of Columbia University’s center on global energy policy. “European energy security” comes from having “a diversity of supply," he said.

It’s the latest twist in the U.S. gas boom. A decade ago, Cheniere Energy Inc. was building LNG import terminals on the Gulf Coast because people thought the U.S. didn’t have enough of the fuel. Then came the shale revolution, prompting Cheniere to convert its Sabine Pass facility to export LNG. The first tanker is set to dock there as soon as next month.

Five U.S. liquefaction projects are now being built and they could have a combined capacity to ship 7.76 billion cubic feet of LNG a day by 2019, according to an analysis by Bloomberg New




Energy Finance. That’s enough to put the U.S. in the company of Russia and Qatar, the world’s largest gas exporters.

Companies like Annova LNG LLC are adapting to the shifting market. A couple of years ago, Annova President David Chung was brushing up on his Korean, thinking that’s the language buyers would speak. Increasingly, the Houston-based company is finding English will do.

“We have definitely been surprised by the level of interest in Europe,” said Mitchell Walk, director of LNG for the company, which is backed by Chicago-based electricity producer Exelon Corp.

Slowing Asian demand for gas is one factor behind the shift. China will only accept 77 percent of contracted cargoes in 2015 amid the country’s slowest economic growth since 1990, according to industry consultant IHS Inc.

Then there’s the fact that Asian gas prices are more heavily linked to crude oil than in Europe. In February 2014, spot LNG to northeast Asia fetched a record $19.70 per million British thermal units, according to the World Gas Intelligence publication in New York. Now, after the worst oil rout in a generation, it’s closer to $7 -- not much higher than European prices -- reducing the incentive to ship U.S. product halfway around the world.

“At a time when the Asian market is growing less strongly than before and there are so many export terminals under construction, a lot of this LNG is going to have to go to Europe,” said Massimo Di Odoardo, research director for European gas at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. in London.




Europe will probably double LNG imports between 2014 and 2020, the International Energy Agency projects. One reason for that is the Netherlands, where officials are slashing output at Europe’s most prolific gas field, Groningen, after years of earthquakes tied to drilling. Just a few hours south, at the country’s first LNG import terminal in Rotterdam, Rolf Brouwer is hoping to make up for the shortfall.

“We’re ready to accept more ships,” said Brouwer, managing director of the Gate terminal, which opened in 2011. “Some of that supply could potentially come from the U.S.”

Lithuania’s importing LNG, too. The small country on the Baltic Sea illustrates the continent’s concern about being dependent on Russia -- and why it is looking more and more to the U.S. For years, the former Soviet republic procured all its oil and gas from Russia. And while the countries share a border, Lithuania paid some of Europe’s highest prices for the fuel, the country’s Energy Minister Rokas Masiulis said at a November conference in Istanbul.

Frustrated by that, Lithuania decided to build a floating LNG import terminal. Before the facility could even open, it negotiated a 23 percent discount from Gazprom PAO, Russia’s energy giant, Masiulis said.

In February, Lithuanian gas trader Litgas signed an agreement with Cheniere to gain access to U.S. LNG.

“By being firm on this decision, we will always have the power in negotiations,” Masiulis said at the conference with a grin. "I would clearly recommend this to other countries in Europe and the world."




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Khaled Malallah Al Awadi, Energy Consultant MS & BS Mechanical Engineering (HON), USA Emarat member since 1990 ASME member since 1995 Hawk Energy member 2010

Mobile: +97150-4822502 [email protected] [email protected]

Khaled Al Awadi is a UAE National with a total of 25 years of experience in the Oil & Gas sector. Currently working as Technical Affairs Specialist for Emirates General Petroleum Corp. “Emarat“ with external voluntary Energy consultation for the GCC area via Hawk Energy Service as a UAE operations base , Most of the experience were spent as the Gas Operations Manager in Emarat , responsible for Emarat Gas Pipeline Network Facility & gas compressor stations . Through the years, he has developed great experiences in the designing & constructing of gas pipelines, gas metering &

regulating stations and in the engineering of supply routes. Many years were spent drafting, & compiling gas transportation, operation & maintenance agreements along with many MOUs for the local authorities. He has become a reference for many of the Oil & Gas Conferences held in the UAE and Energy program broadcasted internationally, via GCC leading satellite Channels.

NewBase : For discussion or further details on the news above you may contact us on +971504822502 , Dubai , UAE

NewBase 22 December 2015 K. Al Awadi

New base 753 special 22 december 2015

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Transcript of New base 753 special 22 december 2015