Osaka Gas News

Japan's industry and land ministries on Wednesday picked three consortia, including one featuring Germany's RWE and its partners, to operate offshore wind farms in the second round of a public auction. They said they would award a fourth wind farm that was part of the tender at a later date.The results of the second major round under a new law to promote wind power were closely watched by energy companies at home and abroad, after the first round was dominated by Mitsubishi Corp.Japan's…

Future Energy Exports CRC, JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation, Low Emission Technology Australia, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), and Osaka Gas have executed a project agreement for the "LP Technology R&D Project" to conduct research and development to demonstrate the technical feasibility and operability of low-pressure and low temperature solutions for the bulk transport of CO2 by ships.The LP Technology R&D Project will involve studying behaviour and boil off characteristics of liquid CO2 under dynamic operating conditions and the impact of non-CO2 components.

Freeport LNG, the second largest U.S. liquefied natural gas exporter, said on Tuesday it had received regulatory approval to restart commercial operations at its Texas processing plant.The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the partial restart of two liquefaction trains, two tanks, and one loop and dock each, a filing showed on Tuesday. Restart of a third train, along with a tank, a loop, and a dock, would require additional permission."The second LNG berth and third LNG storage tank are expected to return to service in May," Freeport said.The closely-held U.S.

The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel arrived on Friday at Freeport LNG's long-idled export plant in Texas since the facility shut in a fire in June last year, according to ship tracking data from Refinitiv.The vessel Kmarin Diamond is operated by a unit of oil major BP, one of Freeport's big customers, according to several vessel tracking services.News of the vessel's arrival helped boost U.S. natural gas futures by over 5% in post-settlement trade on Friday as the second biggest U.S. LNG export plant will consume a lot of gas once it starts production again.The contract had closed at a 25-month low earlier in the week due mostly to mild weather and low heating demand.Freeport has said it would soon start sending gas to one of the plant's three liquefaction trains…

U.S. federal energy regulators on Thursday approved Freeport LNG's request to return ship loading to service at its long-idled Texas liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant.Freeport, the second biggest U.S. LNG export plant, shut after a fire in June 2022. The energy market expects gas prices to rise once the plant starts producing LNG again.When operating at full power, Freeport can turn about 2.1 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into LNG each day. That is about 2% of total U.S.

Freeport LNG, the second-biggest U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, got approval from federal regulators on Thursday to take early steps to restart its fire-idled LNG export plant in Texas.Freeport, however, has not yet sought permission to restart the liquefaction trains that turn natural gas into LNG for export. That resumption of LNG production will have to come in a later request with federal regulators.Energy analysts have said they still expect most of the plant's…

Freeport LNG, the second-largest U.S. liquefied natural gas exporter, on Monday said it had completed repairs to its Texas plant and asked U.S. regulators for permission to take early steps to restart the fire-idled facility.The closely-held liquified natural gas (LNG) company's export facility was knocked offline by a fiery blast on June 8 and barred from resuming production until federal regulators completed an extensive safety review and approved resulting changes.Freeport LNG sought permission to begin introducing LNG into the plant's piping system…

Top U.S. gas exporter, Freeport LNG, is expected to further extend the seven-month-long outage of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Texas to February, as it awaits regulatory approvals, three sources told Reuters on Wednesday.Accounting for 20% of U.S. LNG exports, resumption of the facility is important to ease the squeeze of global LNG supplies, especially as Europe is rebuilding its gas storage after Russia cut gas exports following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine."There has been no official messaging…

At least one liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel gave up on Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas after the company last week delayed its planned restart to the end of December, ship tracking data from Refinitiv showed.Some analysts have said they do not expect Freeport to return until January, February or even later because it will likely take federal pipeline safety regulators longer than Freeport thinks to review and approve its restart plan.The Freeport shutdown added to the squeeze on global gas caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It helped boost prices in Europe and Asia to record highs over the summer, while capping gains in U.S.

Freeport LNG on Friday again delayed the restart of the second-biggest U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility, pushing start-up plans for its Texas plant to the end of the year, pending regulatory approval.In November, the company said it was on track to restart the plant in mid December and get most LNG production back in January with a return to full service in March.Freeport shut the plant on June 8 after an explosion that energy consultants said was the result of human error…

Royal Dutch Shell Plc shut production at its Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) site and Chevron Corp shut one of three processing units at its Gorgon LNG plant, both off northwestern Australia, the companies said on Friday.The Gorgon and Prelude outages are expected to boost spot LNG prices, which are up about 20% from a month ago.Shell said Prelude was hit by a power outage on Thursday after smoke was detected in an electrical utility area, and the facility is operating on back-up diesel generators.

- Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Company (AG&P) said on Monday its Philippines subsidiary has received the green light to develop a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and regasification terminal in Batangas Bay, south of Manila.The firm, part owned by Osaka Gas and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, said the Philippines' energy department has issued it a notice to proceed to develop the terminal, known as Philippines LNG, which will provide the fuel to power plant, industrial…

ClassNK granted an Approval in Principle (AiP) based on its Rule Part N which adopts IGC Code and its Guidelines for Ships Using Low-Flashpoint Fuels to Daihatsu Diesel for their concept design of a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) reformed gas fueled coastal LPG carrier developed in cooperation with Iino Gas Transport, Osaka Gas, Izumi Steel Works, and Miura Shipbuilding in terms of safety assessments.The vessel is designed to be equipped with an LPG reformer developed jointly by Daihatsu Diesel and Osaka Gas, and a dual fuel engine developed by Daihatsu Diesel.

In May 2017, MOL decided to build an LNG-fueled tugboat that would be operated by Nihon Tug-Boat Co., Ltd. It was built by Kanagawa Dockyard Co., Ltd., has dual-fueled engines from Yanmar Co., Ltd., and runs on LNG supplied by Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. The LNG-fueled tugboat, called Ishin, was delivered in February of 2019, and was featured in the December 2019 edition of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News as a Great Ships of 2019.Ishin is Japan’s first tugboat built to conform to the International Code of Safety for Ships Using Gases or Other Low-flashpoint Fuels (IGF Code).

Classification Society ClassNK granted an Approval in Principle (AIP) to Osaka Gas for their joint project with Daihatsu Diesel on an LPG Reformer for marine engines. This was the first AIP granted in Japan for such equipment.The LPG Reformer is designed to convert LPG into synthetic methane gas equivalent to the kind found in LNG. Due to being mainly composed of propane and butane, LPG is susceptible to knocking (abnormal combustion), making it difficult to use as a fuel for lean burn gas engines and dual fuel engines.

Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has taken part in the first bunkering of liquefied natural gas (LNG) into a tugboat at the Port of Kobe, Japan.At the Port of Kobe, the tugboat “Ishin” was bunkered with LNG. It is the first LNG-fuelled tugboat in Japan and it is operated by a MOL group subsidiary, Nihon Tug-Boat.LNG fuel for the trial was hauled by a tanker truck from the Himeji LNG Plant of Osaka Gas, and, via a truck-to-ship system, was used to supply Ishin, berthed at Kobe Port’s Shinko Pier No.4. MOL Marine Co. has also provided maritime consulting in the trial.Effective January 2020, vessel exhaust emission regulations will be tightened on a global scale.In response to the new standards…

Lithuanian liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal operator Klaipedos Nafta (KN) is partnering with the market leaders in the tender procedure for the design, construction and operation of the Cyprus LNG import terminal.The operator of the Klaipėda Oil Terminal submitted the bid alongside consortium partners Samsung C&T, Posco E&C, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and Osaka Gas.If successful, KN will provide long-term operation and maintenance services for this terminal for a period of up to 20 years.DEFA, the Natural Gas Public Company of Cyprus, announced an international public call for tenders in October 2018.According to the published specifications…

Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) company Qatargas has set another milestone as it successfully delivered the 3,000th LNG cargo to Japan.The cargo was transported onboard Al Jasra, a conventional LNG vessel with a capacity of 135,000 cubic meters. The cargo was delivered to the Kawagoe LNG Receiving Terminal, owned and operated by JERA. The first ever Qatari shipment was delivered to Kawagoe LNG Receiving Terminal on 10th January 1997.Commenting on this achievement, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, and Chairman of Qatargas Board of Directors, said: “We are delighted to celebrate the 3000th LNG delivery to Japan. This significant milestone comes over two decades following the first delivery to our foundation customer in Japan.

A tanker carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been floating off Australian waters for nearly two weeks as production at Ichthys project ramps up, industry sources told Reuters.The tanker 'Symphonic Breeze' has been moored at Darwin anchorage since April 17 after loading a cargo from the recently launched Ichthys LNG facility, shipping data from Refinitiv Eikon showed.The LNG cargo has already been sold to a North Asian buyer, who chose to lift it at a later date due to high inventory in its tanks, an industry source familiar with the matter said.The "floating cargo" situation has been part

Japan's largest oil and gas exploration and production company INPEX Corporation has installed ClassNK-NAPA GREEN for monitoring operations on three of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.NAPA said that Inpex awarded a deal to the company for the provision of a solution for monitoring and follow-up of ship operations on two LNG carriers built to service the Ichthys project and one LNG carrier for Shell’s Prelude FLNG project.With the core motivation of accurately verifying the technical performance of these highly complex carriers, INPEX chose ClassNK-NAPA GREEN for the combination of NAPA’s LNG carrier design understanding and market leading performance monitoring software.The Oceanic Breeze…

Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) that its LNG-fueled tugboat 'Ishin' bunkered LNG fuel in Sakai Senboku Port for the first time, in preparation for test operation.MOL ordered the vessel from Kanagawa Dockyard. This is the first bunkering of LNG as a vessel fuel at any port in the Kansai region.The LNG fuel was supplied by Osaka Gas using a truck-to-ship LNG bunkering procedure. The truck-to-ship LNG bunkering procedure supplies LNG fuel from an LNG truck on shore.After test sailing with LNG fuel, the Ishin is slated for delivery in late February, and will start operation in April as the first LNG-fueled tugboat serving Osaka Bay.

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding held a christening ceremony for a next-generation LNG (liquefied natural gas) carrier under construction for MOG-X LNG Shipholding S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL).The ship, named "LNG JUNO," is the third "Sayaringo STaGE" type vessel, and is Mitsubishi Shipbuilding's newest carrier to feature significant improvements in both LNG carrying capacity and fuel performance through adoption of a more efficient hull structure and an innovative hybrid propulsion system.

Japanese logistics giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) announced that naming and launching ceremonies for the company's LNG-fueled tugboat, built at Kanagawa Dockyard  were held on September 28.According to a press release from the company, the tugboat was named Ishin after the name of MOL's technology development project, the 'Ishin Next MOL Smart Ship Project'.Ishin, slated for delivery in February 2019 after the completion of outfitting work, will be the first LNG-fueled tugboat serving Osaka Bay starting in April.In addition, Ishin's excellent environmental performance – including an estimated 25% reduction of CO2 emissions in comparison to tugs that run on A fuel oil – earned the top rating of four stars from the Ministry of Land…