Motorists in Kenya are likely to buy a litre of petrol at a high of Sh215 ($1.79) from September 14 if the fuel subsidy is finally scrapped.
Also compounding the situation and which might see oil companies say no to any further subsidy is the high debt owed them.
This is expected to be the first headache for President William Ruto, who will be sworn in on Tuesday.
Economic analyst Jerry Mugera believes stabilising fuel prices will be Ruto’s first major assignment considering a spike will have a huge spiral effect on inflation which hit 8.5 per cent in a recent monthly review.
”Voters will be expecting a miracle from Ruto. I bet he is alive to this fact,” Mugera said.
In the third review of the International Monitory Fund (IMF) $2.34 billion loan, Kenya committed to end the fuel subsidy before October.
The subsidy has been used to cushion consumers from high global prices.
The international lender is against the initiative that has cut retail fuel prices by over Sh20 per litre for almost a year now.
The Energy and Petroleum Authority of Kenya (EPRA) retained fuel prices in the last review as the government utilised the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) to cushion consumers.
Until September 14, a litre of Petrol will retail at Sh159.12, Kerosene at Sh127.9 4 and diesel at Sh140
Without the subsidy, prices in the last review would have increased to Sh214.13 for diesel, Sh206.17 for petrol and Sh 202.11 for Kerosene.
The National Treasury had diverted Sh18.1 billion meant for the stabilisation of fuel prices to fund energy and infrastructure projects.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
New British Prime Minister Liz Truss has lifted a ban on drilling for shale gas, an effort to boost domestic energy supply that will have to overcome the same obstacles that stymied the industry for the past decade.
The lifting of the moratorium on so-called fracing was part of a package of measures announced on Thursday to tackle soaring energy prices that are hammering households and businesses. Even with the renewed government support, the shale gas industry still faces an uncertain road, with significant opposition from local communities and challenges related to the country’s geology.
Earlier this year, the UK’s meager fracing industry faced its last rites. Cuadrilla Resources Ltd., the company behind the country’s first major shale gas discovery in 2011, was poised to plug and permanently abandon two exploration wells in Lancashire. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine handed the firm a reprieve as the regulator withdrew the order to close the wells and the government of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson considered whether to allow a restart of drilling.
“It is vital we take steps to increase our domestic energy supply,” Truss said in parliament. “We will end the moratorium on extracting our huge reserves of shale that could get gas flowing in as soon as six months where there is local support for it.”
That local support may be hard to find, given the vehement local opposition that has accompanied any attempts to drill for shale gas in the past decade. Residents worried about the risk of earthquakes or the disruption from fleets of trucks carrying equipment and workers, plus campaigners opposed on climate grounds, have frequently halted the industry’s operations. Only 17% of people in the UK support fracing, according to a government survey conducted last year.
“Before the fracing moratorium, the industry had ten years of the government ‘going all out for shale’ and giving them all the support denied to onshore wind,” said Georgia Whitaker, oil and gas campaigner for Greenpeace UK. “In that time, the fracers produced no energy for the UK, but managed to create two holes in a muddy field, traffic, noise, earthquakes and enormous controversy.”
The geology of Britain’s rocks also make a US-style boom unlikely.
“We’ve got the wrong kind of shale in the UK,” said Jon Gluyas, director of Durham University’s energy institute. “We will get some shale gas out, but it won’t scale in the same way” as the US, he said.
There are a few key differences between the rocks below Britain and those in America’s Permian Basin. The best performing shale reservoirs in the US are found in rocks that are largely silica-based. That allows for the drilling of sturdy wells that will last a long time. In the UK, the ground is made of clay that won’t hold a fracture for as long.
Also, the rock in the US is uniform over large tracts of land, but in the UK can vary widely below the surface, making it impossible to replicate techniques quickly and ramp up production, he said.
A better solution for boosting UK gas production may lies in the North Sea, where industry has been extracting energy for decades and there are still plenty of resources left, Gluyas said.
Truss said her government will proceed with an offer of new North Sea exploration licenses announced earlier this year, with more than 100 new permits available.
The focus on fracing and licensing shows the Truss government’s focus on increasing supply, rather than limiting demand by funding energy-saving measures like home insulation.
“There is a real danger of the government serving up a red herring with local communities likely to oppose fracing rigs while focus is diverted from efficiency and renewables,” said Jess Ralston, senior analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. “All the experts and even the industry agree more UK gas won’t bring down British bills.”
Earlier this year when he was business secretary in Johnson’s government, Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng said fracing wouldn’t solve the energy crisis.
“Even if we lifted the fracing moratorium tomorrow, it would take up to a decade to extract sufficient volumes — and it would come at a high cost for communities and our precious countryside,” Kwarteng wrote in the Mail on Sunday newspaper in March. “No amount of shale gas from hundreds of wells dotted across rural England would be enough to lower the European price any time soon.”
Source: Bloomberg
Central African countries signed a deal last Thursday to create a regional oil and gas pipeline network and hub infrastructures which backers say will strengthen energy supply and reduce dependence on imports of refined products.
The project aims to construct three multinational oil and gas pipeline systems of around 6,500 km, storage depots, liquefied natural gas terminals, at least three refineries and gas-fired power plants linking 11 countries by 2030, according to report by Reuters.
The countries, including Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Republic are all oil producers or have vast untapped oil and gas reserves but are dependent on refined products imports.
Most of them have little or no refining capacity and have been struggling with fuel and power shortages, made worse by the Ukraine crisis.
Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons of OPEC member Equatorial Guinea, told the forum ahead of the signing ceremony in Cameroon that the project was crucial to tackle energy poverty in the region.
He said the project was inspired by West Africa’s gas pipeline linking Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana, and the European model where Rotterdam serves as a refining and distributing hub for several countries.
“It will not be cheap, or easy, but if it is done as a collaboration, it will work,” he said, adding that the network will help get rid of trucks crisscrossing countries and boost the regional oil and gas market taking products where needed.
The memorandum of understanding for the project signed on Thursday by the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO), one of the backers, and the Central Africa Business Energy Forum, will pave the way for feasibility studies.
Omar Farouk Ibrahim, Secretary General of APPO said the project was one of the most ambitious energy infrastructure projects whose completion has the potential to dramatically change the economies of participating countries.
The Executive Director of Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG) says his outfit is confident industries in the country would take bold investment-driven steps to partner with the efforts of the government as the country embark on the phase II activities of the nuclear power programme to prepare to commence construction in phase III.
According to him, the NPG is currently drafting a report on the preferred site for the West African nation’s first nuclear power plant for regulatory review and approval.
It is not yet known which nuclear technology Ghana will opt for, modular or large reactor, but this portal is aware that NPG has submitted a report to the Ministry of Energy to be forwarded to cabinet on which technology the country should adopt.
Recently, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo made a bold statement by officially approving Ghana’s quest to include nuclear power in the energy mix.
Speaking at the Ghana Industrial Summit hosted by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in Accra recently, Dr. Stephen Yamoah highlighted the benefits of nuclear power.
He expressed the view that modern affordable and sustainable energy services are a powerful engine of economic and social development, and no country has managed to develop much beyond a subsistence economy without ensuring, at least, minimum access to energy services for a broad section of its population.
“Nuclear energy is a mature and proven low-carbon source of electricity, with over 60-year track record of providing reliable and safe operation,” he said.
He continued, “Nuclear creates an opportunity for us to create jobs that would be decent and sustainable. Nuclear provides an opportunity for careers, not just jobs. A successful Nuclear Power Programme/Project in Ghana would develop skills, create sustainable jobs and create wealth.”
According to the NPG boss, advanced innovation and technological advancement have made nuclear power plants safer than in the past.
Dr. Yamoah reiterated the need for Ghana’s industry to take deliberate steps to position themselves for opportunities in the nuclear project saying: “Are we in the right position, are we ready, or can we be ready, or position ourselves as an industry, to take on the opportunities that the Nuclear industry brings to strengthen our growth and the economy?”
He further noted that it was essential for the industry to position itself and prepare for nuclear localisation.
He suggested that it could be done with or without local companies forming international strategic partnerships and apply it to fields such as Engineering and Procurement, Manufacturing, Construction and Construction management.
Dr. Yamoah pointed out that the nuclear Power Project demanded very high standards, which is the challenge that must be overcome.
“Unfortunately, with Nuclear, there’s no other way around it. The necessary skills and certifications must be acquired and would be essential if industry aims at being part of the success story,” he advised.
Rationalising his argument about the nuclear localisation programme, he noted that, that was a very important issue which did not only give Ghanaian companies financial benefits if they prepared themselves to take advantage of the supply chain but it also required a master plan.
Dr. Yamoah, therefore, tasked industrial players to engage and align asserting the conviction that they at NPG were of the view that Ghana’s industry had limited capacity and capability so, there was the need to work hard together and promptly argue that it was the way to go as there is no option to win this energy Industrialisation war.
Dr. Yamoah further suggested that Ghana needed a nuclear industry readiness programme in advance before the first Nuclear Power Plant is expected on the grid.
According to him, players in the industry needed to be fully aligned and orientated before they put in tenders for any nuclear work.
“We are of the firm belief that our partnership with AGI would be sustained and would lead to both horizontal and vertical alignment for sustainable growth,” he emphasised.
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European Union member states Energy Ministers are divided over whether to cap Russian gas prices, as they met to work out steps to shield citizens and businesses from sky-high energy bills.
At least 10 of the Energy Ministers from the EU members including Italy, Greece and Poland are reported to have opposed the bloc’s slapping of a price cap on Russian gas over concerns that Russian Leader Vladimir Putin might retaliate with a complete halt of gas supply to the whole Europe.
Oilprice.com which carried the news cited a report by Financial Times as the EU member states energy ministers meet on Friday, September 9, 2022, to discuss measures to ease the burden of energy crisis on consumers.
Friday’s ministerial talks aim to whittle down options for further discussion, rather than reaching a final decision on ways to tackle a crisis fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But many said agreement and action needed to be swift.
“We are in an energy war with Russia,” Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela said in a report filed by Reuters.
Minister Jozef Sikela further, said: “We have to send a clear signal that we would do whatever it takes to support our households, our economies.”
Energy bills, already surging as demand for gas recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, have rocketed higher since the Ukraine war. As Russia has reduced gas deliveries to Europe following the imposition of Western sanctions, EU governments have scrambled to limit the resulting energy price shock.
An EU proposal to cap Russian gas prices has so far failed to win support from a majority of countries, with Russia threatening to completely cut off the dwindling supplies that have continued to flow if such a step is taken.
Baltic States are among those backing the idea, saying it would deprive Moscow of cash to fund military action in Ukraine.
“Russia has said if you want our gas, take down the sanctions. It is blackmail. We cannot back down, we have to be united, we have to have the political will to help Ukraine win,” Estonian Economic Affairs Minister Riina Sikkut said.
But central and eastern European states, many of them more reliant than others on Russian fuel, fear losing all their supplies, while some question whether a cap would have much impact on reducing prices when deliveries are so low.
“If price restrictions were to be imposed exclusively on Russian gas, that would evidently lead to an immediate cut-off in Russian gas supplies. It does not take a Nobel Prize to recognise that,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said EU ministers should give Brussels the green light to prepare legislation to decouple the gas price from the price consumers pay for power from other energy carriers.
The European Commission this week said it would propose a measure to claw back revenues from non-gas power generators and spend the cash on cutting consumer bills.
According to Reuters, a draft of the Commission proposal, would cap at 200 euros ($201.74) per megawatt hour of revenues non-gas producer receive. It would apply to wind, nuclear and coal generators.
European power prices are typically set by gas plants, so the cap would aim to skim off excess profits made in recent months by non-gas producers that have lower running costs but have still been able to sell their power at soaring prices.
“The measures the Commission has recommended in taking some of those excess profits and recycling them back into the households makes sense,” Irish Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said.
But France, home to Europe’s biggest nuclear power fleet, questioned whether the same limit should be applied to all non-gas generators.
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Nigeria has advised Europe to provide the appropriate policy framework for their banks to facilitate their investment Africa’s in oil and gas sector.
The West African nation’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, gave the advice at the Gastech Conference in Milan, Italy.
“Europe should significantly back investment in gas and provide a policy framework that enables European banks to invest in hydrocarbons across Africa,” he said.
Focusing on gas production in Africa is “a no-brainer”, Timipre Sylva said, with 600 million people living without electricity in Africa and 740 billion feet, 22.2 billion meters of gas reserves on the continent.
Increased gas production would also help the continent’s 900 million people who live without access to clean cooking fuels, provide massive job opportunities and allow the emergence of a new alternative supplier for Europe, a “win-win for Europe and Africa”, he said.
And it is in Europe’s own interest “to reduce discriminatory investment rules that the banks are doing”, Sylva said.
The Minister said that he had previously told European officials that they “must provide the appropriate policy framework for your banks, so that they can invest in oil and gas”.
The EU’s energy taxonomy, set to come into force in January 2023, is a voluntary tool and a signpost for private investors towards climate neutrality. But investment from large European banks in oil and gas fell in 2021, unlike their north American counterparts.
Speaking from a similar position Ghana’s Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh also called for more investment.
“Africa has been chronically under-invested,” he said.
“No country should be told to stay where it is,” he added.
The issue of European investment in African hydrocarbons had previously risen to the fore during European Commission president Ursula von Der Leyen’s visit to Senegal in February. Senegalese President Macky Sall said that cutting off funding for new gas exploration would be a “fatal blow” for emerging African countries.
Also, Indian oil and gas Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri welcomed the shift in the popular narrative away from the “ideological hang-up about not using or not extracting the gas reserves you have”.
“Gas is a clean fuel, if you have it why don’t you use it,” he said. He added that it is time to “step on the gas on all the plants, whether it is wind, solar, innovations, compressed biogas”.
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Oil and gas workers in the Federal Republic of Nigeria have threatened to embark on a nationwide strike over rising cases of oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
The workers under the umbrella body-PENGASSAN at a press conference addressed by the President Festus Osifo, said government must gather political will to chase out oil thieves vandalising the nation’s pipelines.
According to them, the oil theft has crumbled Nigeria’s economy, insisting the union will no longer sit back and watch.
The Union’s President said, beginning Thursday, they will organise rallies in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna and Abuja to show its anger over the menace.
He lamented that due to oil theft, Nigeria can no longer meet the OPEC quota of 1.8 million barrels per day, even as the country struggles to produce a million barrels.
Osifo said the union had dialogued with critical stakeholders, agencies of government and service chiefs on how to curb the menace.
He said series of meetings had not yielded desired result because cartels are feasting on the economy.
“This is a menace that is overtaking the country. This is the reason Nigeria keeps borrowing to finance the national budget. Enough is enough! We have to add our voices to the current struggle. It is not going to be a one-off thing. Companies are shutting down; our members are losing their jobs in services and production companies,” Mr Osifo said as reported by orientalng.com.
He urged service chiefs to hold officers manning pipelines accountable, stressing that anyone who compromises should be made to face the law.
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Ghana’s petroleum downstream regulator, National Petroleum Authority (NPA), has initiated steps to partner with the Togolese Directorate in charge of Environment to monitor the Trans boundary movement of waste oil between the two West African nations.
Some unscrupulous persons in the two countries have been smuggling finished petroleum products under the guise of transporting waste oil.
It is for this reason that the two institutions want to collaborate in sharing information between them to curb the illegalities.
To start the processes, the NPA’s Deputy Chief Executive, Mrs. Linda Asante, has led a delegation to visit the Togolese Directorate in charge of Environment in Lome, Togo, headed by Miss Mery Yaou, to begin a discussion on how the two institutions can partner to deal with the issue.
Mrs. Asante said that while she was aware of the Basel Convention which provides the framework for such activities, waste oil activities have become an issue of grave concern in Ghana, saying, “This is the reason for which the NPA seeks to have a working relationship with the Directorate in Togo.”
Corroborating, Miss Mery Yaou, the Head of the Directorate, said the visit was very timely especially because they also have, in recent times, had concerns with waste oil activities, particularly on how waste oil delivered to Ghana is disposed off.
She assured the NPA of her institution’s support and close collaboration to ensure a robust system is put in place for effective monitoring of waste oil activities.
The NPA team also visited its counterpart in Togo, the Comité de Suivi des Fluctuations des Prix des Produits Pétroliers (CSFPPP) and the Togolese Port Authority, which is responsible for the management and oversight of all port infrastructure including the Oil Jetty.
Mrs. Asante expressed the NPA’s interest in discussing more business opportunities which can be exploited by players in both countries.
The discussion also centred on how to map out strategies to enhance efficiency in export trade while instituting measures to combat illegal practices in the trade.
In a related development, the NPA team also paid a visit to the project site of Sanol Gas (an LPG marketing company in Togo) where there is currently the construction of a 3000MT capacity LPG Tank Farm.
The visit was to explore business opportunities between the two countries in the LPG sub-sector.
Mrs. Asante informed Sanol Gas of the review of the existing guidelines which seeks to make the export process more business-friendly and facilitate trade.
She further appealed to Sanol Gas to reconsider Ghana as a country of choice for its LPG supply.
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Liberia’s Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) delegation is in the Republic of Ghana to understudy the operations of the West African nation’s energy sector agencies.
The delegation, being hosted by Ghana’s technical electricity regulator, Energy Commission, embarked on a study tour of Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo).
The guests were taken through the technical operations of the National Interconnected Transmission System (NITS).
Ing. Mark Baah briefing the delegation on what goes on in the System Control Centre
The delegation was also taken through an overview of the operations of the Dispatch Centre popularly known as the System Control Centre.
The Liberian team will also visit other utility companies including CENPOWER Generation Company, ECG’s Winneba substation, VRA’s mini-grid site and VRA’s Hydro generation station in Akosombo to study relevant areas of their operations.
The initiative forms part of the steps taken to rebuild and reform the Energy Sector of Liberia.
The Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) is a statutory body created by the 2015 Electricity Law of Liberia to oversee and regulate the sector.
GRIDCo is Ghana’s power transmission company and currently manages 6472.23 kilometres of transmission lines.
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The Government of Ghana is working assiduously to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the 31 million Ghanaians will have access to safe, clean and environmentally friendly LPG by 2030.
This is according to the country’s Deputy Minister for Energy, William Owuraku Aidoo.
Speaking at the launch of the National LPG Promotion Programme in Obuasi, Ashanti Region, William Owuraku Aidoo said the Government of Ghana, over the past years, has undertaken programmes, activities and initiatives toward promoting Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a safer, cleaner and healthier form of cooking fuel for households.
The Deputy Minister, who is also the MP for Afigya Kwabre South in the Ashanti Region, noted that the various promotional programmes carried out by the government over the years have led to some major investments in the LPG sector.
Consequently, he said access to LPG has increased over the years to the current 25.3 per cent.
“We have a more ambitious target. In the National LPG Promotion Policy, Government has set a target that at least 50% of Ghanaians should have access to safe, clean, and environmentally friendly LPG for domestic, commercial and industrial usage by 2030.”
He continued: “Government recognises that the initial investment required to switch to the use of LPG remains a barrier. Ordinarily, the initial investment cost for a domestic user may include purchasing an LPG cylinder, cookstove, regulator, rubber hose and clippers.”
Mr. Owuraku-Aidoo further encouraged beneficiaries of the government’s intervention to sustain the use of LPG and not revert to firewood and charcoal, saying: “LPG is the safest, cleanest and healthiest form of cooking fuel available today and we urge all Ghanaians to switch to LPG now.”
On her part, the Queen-mother for Akrokeri and Chairperson for the event, Nana Serwaa Bruwaa II, called for massive support for the programme as they work towards decarbonising the country.
The government envisages that the rollout of the National LPG Promotion Programme using the Cylinder Recirculation Module as a vehicle for distribution will help Ghana achieve its goal in the use of LPG as a clean, safe and healthy cooking fuel and to satisfy Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7; which is affordable and clean energy and SDG 13; which is climate action.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to retaliate against any move by the European Union to cap the price of Russian gas by halting flows completely and suggesting a deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported to world markets could be disrupted.
Addressing an economic conference in the Russian Far East late on Wednesday, Putin referred to the EU’s proposed cap on Russian gas prices as “yet another stupidity, another non-market decision that has no future”.
The Russian president said such a move by Europe could result in more price hikes.
Putin also noted that Russian piped gas is “many times more competitive than the liquefied natural gas shipped across the ocean”, in reference to the higher price Europe is paying to stock up on American LNG as a replacement. He vowed to ignore “political decisions that contradict contracts”.
“We won’t be supplying anything if it runs counter to our interests,” state-run Tass News Agency reported him as saying. “Those who are imposing whatsoever on us are not in a position to tell us what they want. Let them think about it.”
EU ministers are set to discuss gas cap measures on Friday.
Putin also threatened to disrupt the UN-brokered deal that has seen Turkey mediate shipments of Ukrainian grain from Odesa to world markets via Istanbul, suggesting that only wealthy countries are receiving this grain.
Ukraine and Russia cut a deal with Turkey and the UN in July in order to avert a global food crisis due to large volumes of Ukrainian grain blocked from leaving ports.
Putin called the grain deal “another outrageous deceit” and vowed to “have a word with the Turkish President”, saying Russia and other poorer countries were not benefiting from the deal. The Russian president said that for the time being, Moscow would continue with the deal but suggested he would be looking for concessions.
Source: Oilprice.com
UK’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss says she was against the windfall tax on oil and gas companies operating in the UK, reiterating her commitment to focus on developing domestic energy resources.
“I am against a windfall tax. I believe it is the wrong thing to be putting companies off investing in the United Kingdom,” the prime minister said, as carried by Reuters.
Following months of rumors and indecision, the UK government announced at the end of May a 25% Energy Profits Levy, commonly referred to as a “windfall tax”, as part of a package to ease the cost-of-living crisis stemming from huge rises in household energy bills.
The move, which was implemented with immediate effect, has long been opposed by the industry, which argued that a windfall tax would add uncertainty to the UK tax regime and hit new investments in the UK North Sea at a time when the UK grapples with reducing reliance on foreign imports of oil and gas.
The UK’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss also said on Wednesday that her government would bet more on domestic energy resources, including more extraction of oil and gas from the UK North Sea.
“I want to see us use more of our energy supply, including more oil and gas from the North Sea and nuclear power,” Truss said during her first Prime Minister’s Questions session in Parliament a day after Queen Elizabeth II formally appointed her to lead the new UK cabinet.
During her campaign for Conservative leadership for the next British prime minister, Truss was said to be readying plans to issue as many as 130 new licenses for drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
Responding to the report in The Times at the end of August, the UK’s leading offshore industry body, OEUK, said that “the UK and Europe must now think carefully about prioritising reliable and responsible energy producers to deliver cleaner, secure energy.”
Truss is also expected to announce this week her program for tackling the energy and cost-of-living crises in the UK. Reports have it that the new PM is considering plans to spend $150 billion (£130 billion) over the next year and a half to freeze household energy bills at their current levels.
As the energy and cost-of-living crisis in the UK deepens, the incoming Truss government is looking to avoid an 80% planned surge in the so-called price cap on household energy bills set to kick in in October.
Source: Oilprice.com
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Tuesday it has denied a request from leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter Cheniere Energy Inc. to exempt turbines at its two U.S. Gulf Coast terminals from a hazardous pollution rule.
The rejection raises questions about whether the Texas-based company will have to reduce exports of the supercooled fuel to install new pollution control equipment at its facilities at a time that Europe is depending on increased shipments of LNG from the United States to offset cuts from Russia.
Europe is facing its worst-ever gas supply crisis, with energy prices soaring and German importers discussing possible rationing in the European Union’s biggest economy after Russia reduced gas flows westward. Moscow has cited a pipeline fault for the halt, but Europe sees it as apparent retribution for Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
“Though EPA is denying Cheniere’s request for a special subcategory to comply with the turbines rule, the Agency will continue to work with them and with other companies as needed to assure they meet Clean Air Act obligations,” EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll said in an email.
Owners and operators of gas turbines had a Sept. 5 deadline to comply with the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), which the administration of President Joe Biden put into effect after an 18-year stay.
The rule imposes curbs on emissions of known carcinogens like formaldehyde and benzene from stationary combustion turbines, like those used by LNG facilities.
Cheniere had asked the Biden administration to exempt a specific kind of turbine that it installed at its LNG terminals from the NESHAP limits, arguing they would reduce shipments from the top U.S. exporter for an extended period and endanger the country’s efforts to ramp up supplies to Europe.
Cheniere was the only company to request such an exemption, according to the EPA. The company claimed the model of turbine it uses at its Texas and Louisiana facilities is the best technology for withstanding the types of storms that often strike the Gulf Coast, but that the equipment is also exceptionally hard to retrofit, and that engineering and installation of pollution controls could take years.
Cheniere spokesperson Eben Burnham-Snyder said that while the company “strongly disagrees” with the EPA’s decision, “we will work with our state and federal regulators to develop solutions that ensure compliance.”
He said the decision may result in “unwarranted expenditures” but added that coming into full compliance will not result in a material financial or operational impact and will not affect its ability to supply LNG to customers and countries around the world.
Gas-powered turbines emit formaldehyde and other dangerous pollutants through a chemical transformation that occurs when methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is superheated.
Around 250 U.S. gas turbines are subject to the new rule, according to an EPA list, nearly a quarter of them Cheniere’s.
The Houston-based company accounts for around 50% of U.S. shipments of LNG abroad.
Ilan Levin, associate director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said the decision by EPA to deny Cheniere’s request was not a surprise because it had warned the company that it needed to meet the standard for years.
Reuters reported last month that the EPA had questioned Cheniere’s selection of gas turbines without adding pollution controls in 2011 and again in 2013.
“We applaud the EPA for enforcing the law and making sure the people living near these plants in the coastal bend and southeast Texas/southwest Louisiana get the same clean air protections as everybody else,” he said.
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called for a demilitarised zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, involving the withdrawal of Russian occupying troops and the agreement of Ukrainian forces not to move in.
Guterres was addressing a UN Security Council session on Tuesday, at which he supported the recommendations put forward by Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who led an inspection visit to the occupied Zaporizhzhia plant last week, and presented a report to the Security Council.
The report confirmed the presence of Russian soldiers and military equipment at the plant, including army vehicles.
“We are playing with fire and something very, very catastrophic could take place. This is why in our report, we are proposing the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone limited to the perimeter and the plant itself,” Grossi said.
Guterres said that, as a first step, Russian and Ukrainian forces should cease all military operations around the plant.
“As a second step, an agreement on a demilitarised perimeter should be secured,” he added. “Specifically, that will include the commitment by Russian forces to withdraw military personnel and equipment from that perimeter and the commitment by Ukrainian forces not to move in.”
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, blamed recent shelling of the plant on Ukraine and portrayed Russian forces as protecting the plant.
He did not respond to the call for a security zone, a proposal Moscow has so far rejected.
Nebenzya said he had not had time to read the IAEA report.
Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s ambassador said that Kyiv would have to look at the details of the IAEA’s recommendations, but offered qualified support for the proposal of a demilitarised zone if it involved full Russian withdrawal.
The IAEA report presented on Tuesday said the agency was “gravely concerned” about the “unprecedented” situation at the plant, which is controlled by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian technicians, and urged interim measures to prevent a nuclear disaster.
The report came as a Russian colonel who served as the military commandant of the occupied Ukrainian city of Berdiansk was reported to have been killed in a car bombing, according to Russian state media reports.
The car bomb reportedly exploded near the city administrative headquarters, which is being used as a Russian base. Photographs showed that the car used by the Russian military official, who has been identified as Col Artyom Bardin, was severely damaged in the attack, which took place close to midday.
Initial reports indicated that Bardin died from his wounds. But Vladimir Rogov, the Russian-appointed administrative head of the Zaporizhzhia region, said in a Telegram post written just after 8.30pm on Tuesday that the colonel continued to “fight for his life”.
“Thank God, information about the death of the commandant of Berdyansk Artyom Bardin is not confirmed. Despite severe injuries, explosive leg amputation and massive blood loss, he is alive. Doctors continue to fight for his life,” he said.
Russian officials have alleged that Ukraine was behind the attack. If true, it would be the most significant assassination yet of an official working for the occupational government of Russia in Ukraine.
At least two Ukrainians collaborating with the Russian government were killed in suspected partisan attacks in August. In one case, the deputy head of the Russian-installed military administration was shot to death in his home in the city of Nova Kakhovka. In late August, a Ukrainian politician from Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s party who had gone over to work with the Russians was killed in the Kherson region.
Ukrainian staff were operating under constant high stress and pressure, especially with the limited staff available, the report said. “This is not sustainable and could lead to increased human error with implications for nuclear safety,” it added.
Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Dame Barbara Woodward, told the Security Council the Zaporizhzhia staff were “no longer workers, but hostages being held at gunpoint.”
Russian troops seized control of the site in early March and there have been repeated attacks in the vicinity, prompting fears of a nuclear disaster. Moscow and Kyiv have denied responsibility and the report did not ascribe blame for the damage its inspectors had discovered.
The UN agency sent a 14-person team to the site last week, including its director general, Rafael Grossi, to assess the situation at the plant. At least two members of the team are to remain there on a permanent basis to ensure the facility’s safety.
“There is an urgent need for interim measures to prevent a nuclear accident arising from physical damage caused by military means,” the IAEA said. “This can be achieved by the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone.
“The IAEA recommends that shelling on site and in its vicinity should be stopped immediately to avoid any further damages to the plant and associated facilities.”
Source: The Vanguard
The EU’s energy taxonomy, set to come into force in January 2023, is a voluntary tool and a signpost for private investors towards climate neutrality. But investment from large European banks in oil and gas fell in 2021, unlike their north American counterparts.
Speaking from a similar position Ghana’s Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh also called for more investment.
“Africa has been chronically under-invested,” he said.
“No country should be told to stay where it is,” he added.
The issue of European investment in African hydrocarbons had previously risen to the fore during European Commission president Ursula von Der Leyen’s visit to Senegal in February. Senegalese President Macky Sall said that cutting off funding for new gas exploration would be a “fatal blow” for emerging African countries.
Also, Indian oil and gas Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri welcomed the shift in the popular narrative away from the “ideological hang-up about not using or not extracting the gas reserves you have”.
“Gas is a clean fuel, if you have it why don’t you use it,” he said. He added that it is time to “step on the gas on all the plants, whether it is wind, solar, innovations, compressed biogas”.
The NPA team also visited its counterpart in Togo, the Comité de Suivi des Fluctuations des Prix des Produits Pétroliers (CSFPPP) and the Togolese Port Authority, which is responsible for the management and oversight of all port infrastructure including the Oil Jetty.
Mrs. Asante expressed the NPA’s interest in discussing more business opportunities which can be exploited by players in both countries.
The discussion also centred on how to map out strategies to enhance efficiency in export trade while instituting measures to combat illegal practices in the trade.
In a related development, the NPA team also paid a visit to the project site of Sanol Gas (an LPG marketing company in Togo) where there is currently the construction of a 3000MT capacity LPG Tank Farm.
The visit was to explore business opportunities between the two countries in the LPG sub-sector.
Mrs. Asante informed Sanol Gas of the review of the existing guidelines which seeks to make the export process more business-friendly and facilitate trade.
She further appealed to Sanol Gas to reconsider Ghana as a country of choice for its LPG supply.
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The Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) is a statutory body created by the 2015 Electricity Law of Liberia to oversee and regulate the sector.
GRIDCo is Ghana’s power transmission company and currently manages 6472.23 kilometres of transmission lines.
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Mr. Owuraku-Aidoo further encouraged beneficiaries of the government’s intervention to sustain the use of LPG and not revert to firewood and charcoal, saying: “LPG is the safest, cleanest and healthiest form of cooking fuel available today and we urge all Ghanaians to switch to LPG now.”
On her part, the Queen-mother for Akrokeri and Chairperson for the event, Nana Serwaa Bruwaa II, called for massive support for the programme as they work towards decarbonising the country.
The government envisages that the rollout of the National LPG Promotion Programme using the Cylinder Recirculation Module as a vehicle for distribution will help Ghana achieve its goal in the use of LPG as a clean, safe and healthy cooking fuel and to satisfy Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7; which is affordable and clean energy and SDG 13; which is climate action.
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