South Korea

Despite sweltering heat waves and a slight lift in European prices, LNG market activity is expected to remain light as buyers and U.S. producers hone in on the future supply and demand scenario. After a brief climb to almost $11/MMbtu last week, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) dropped to $8.705/MMBtu at the end of…

Cheniere Energy Inc. has signed a long-term sales and purchasing agreement with Korea Southern Power Co. Ltd (KOSPO) that could eventually help underpin its proposed expansion of Sabine Pass LNG. Earlier in the month, Cheniere management told investors during a first quarter call it had secured a more than 20-year deal with an Asian customer…

South Korea, the third largest global LNG importer in 2022, will continue to rely on the super-chilled fuel despite the country’s latest plans to increase the amount of nuclear and renewables used for power generation. Since President Yoon Suk-yeol took office in 2020, the government has reversed his predecessor’s policy of phasing out nuclear power.…

A roundup of news and commentary from NGI’s LNG Insight: Cheniere Energy Inc. will be working through January to demobilize construction crews at its Sabine Pass LNG facility and file required information after completing construction on its third marine berth, according to a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The additional berth, completed in…

Houston-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. has clinched its first agreement to sell up to 200,00 b/d of net-zero emissions oil over five years to South Korea’s SK Trading International, an indication the direct air capture (DAC) project in West Texas may proceed. Oxy, as it is better known, has begun preliminary work on its massive DAC…

State-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) inked agreements this week with South Korea’s major shipyards, reserving construction capacity to secure more than 100 liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers over the next eight years in a deal valued at more than $19 billion.

Total Petrochemical, a joint venture of South Korea’s Hanwha Group and France’s Total SA, plans to expand the Desean refining/petrochemicals integrated facility in South Korea to increase ethylene production capacity by 30% to 1.4 million tons/year. Daesan, one of Total’s six world-class integrated platforms and a strategic asset for Hanwha, includes a condensate splitter, steam cracker and polymers, styrene and aromatics units. “The extension will significantly increase the site’s flexibility, enabling it to process competitively priced propane feedstock, which is abundantly available, notably due to the shale gas revolution in the United States,” the company said. The expansion, expected to be completed by mid-2019, would add ethylene production for local demand and supply the nearby fast-growing Chinese market, a significant importer.