Inflation, spare parts, upfront fees for land and $1 billion of interest on loans have all contributed to the $3.5 billion budget increase, said the US industrial gases company, which is developing the project in the desert of northwest Saudi Arabia with partners ACWA Power, the Saudi renewables developer, and NEOM.

While the green hydrogen project – which would use 4GW of wind, solar and battery storage to produce 1.2 million tonnes of green ammonia per year from 2.2GW of electrolysers – is seeing “great progress”, with construction under way, its total capital needs have risen to $8.5 billion.

Breaking down the $3.5 billion price hike, Air Products attributes $500 million to inflation, $1.8 billion to “project financing costs, upfront fees, interest during construction, additional joint venture costs, spares, land, etc”, and $1.2 billion to “additional scope to make project more self-sufficient and lower operating costs”. This means services that the project partners now want to provide themselves, such as transmission lines and other infrastructure costs, according to an Air Products’ call with analysts.

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Dorado is a proposed phased liquids and gas development, with an initial phase of liquids development with gas re-injection and the potential for a second phase development to recover and pipe the gas to the Western Australian domestic and LNG markets.

Following the grant of a Production License in April 2022, Dorado now has the primary regulatory approvals required to support development.

Santos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher said Dorado is an exciting development opportunity which is further enhanced by the recent oil discovery at the adjacent Pavo field.

“Our focus now is to finalize the concept for an integrated liquids and gas development and obtain the remaining approvals required to support a final investment decision,” Gallagher said.

“The best emergency reserve you can have for national liquid fuel security is oil in the ground and the infrastructure in place to produce it when you need it most,” Gallagher commented.

The Dorado and Pavo fields combined are estimated to contain gross 2C contingent resources of 189 million barrels of liquids and 401 petajoules of gas (Santos-share 147 million barrels and 320 petajoules, respectively).

Santos has an 80% interest in Dorado and a 70% interest in Pavo and operates both fields. The remaining interests are held by Carnarvon Energy.

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Italy’s Eni SpA and Spain’s Repsol SA are reviewing drafts of contracts after holding a series of meetings with high-ranking members of government in which they asked for operational control at oil and gas ventures jointly held with state energy company PDVSA, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not be named because the information is private.

Chevron received a similar deal last year, raising expectations from analysts that Venezuela would give other energy companies broader control over joint ventures. Eni, Repsol and French company Maurel et Prom have the capacity to pump an additional 50,000 to 80,000 bpd if they increase operations in the South American country, according to Francisco Monaldi, lecturer in energy economics at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

While even an extra 80,0000 bpd would do little to immediately impact global energy markets, the move would be the latest sign of an advancing political agenda in the nation. Maduro used the Chevron deal to call on the U.S. to ease more sanctions on the country’s beleaguered oil industry.

It would also add to Venezuela’s efforts to increase oil production in an industry responsible for the vast majority of its exports. The country’s current output of around 690,000 bpd is roughly one-third of what it was five years ago, according to OPEC.

Eni declined to comment. Repsol didn’t reply to request for comment. Venezuela’s oil ministry office and Petroleos de Venezuela SA didn’t reply to a request for comment.

Venezuela has faced the hurdle of economic sanctions. Increasing oil output would help to shore up the region’s economies, which deal with some of the worst wealth inequality in the world, while also helping to boost tight global energy supplies.

If the European oil companies are granted more control from the Venezuelan government, it isn’t clear if the companies would need an additional permission from the U.S. Treasury to avoid secondary sanctions before increasing production.

Eni and Repsol began negotiations with Venezuelan officials, including Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, in mid-2022. But the negotiations have taken on momentum more recently, according to the people. The Venezuelan government has requested that in exchange for more control at oil fields, the companies make investments in gas projects.

Venezuela’s oil and gas production has suffered since the U.S. slapped the country with sanctions in 2019. Eni and Repsol ventures have also decreased. Both companies hold a waiver from U.S. Treasury Department that lets them take oil shipments from PDVSA to offset 2022’s sales from a natural gas project to supply the domestic market.

In a recent move, they agreed to a swap deal to load 4 million barrels of Venezuelan oil through March to continue an agreement reached with Maduro to offset PDVSA debt.

In November, the U.S. Treasury eased some restrictions on Chevron, allowing the firm to produce and export Venezuelan oil. With more control over its operations, Chevron has raised its oil production to 90,000 bpd from 50,000 bpd, helping it recoup part of the debt owed by PDVSA.

The move from the U.S. government came as President Joe Biden asked American oil companies to boost oil production in order to combat higher gasoline prices that have burdened consumers.

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“We are advancing a full value chain carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) business and believe Svante is poised to be a leader in enabling carbon capture solutions,” said Chris Powers, vice president of CCUS with CNE. “Innovation is key to enabling these types of breakthrough technologies and lower carbon solutions, and we look forward to applying our experience and expertise to help drive this effort forward.”

Since its founding in 2007, Svante has developed carbon capture and removal technology using structured adsorbent beds, known as filters. This funding will support Svante’s commercial-scale filter manufacturing facility in Vancouver, which is anticipated to produce enough filter modules to capture millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per year across hundreds of large-scale carbon capture and storage facilities.

“We are proud that Chevron and a group of existing and new strategic and financial investors have demonstrated their confidence in Svante to be a key player in building a commercially viable carbon management industry,” said Claude Letourneau, President and CEO of Svante. “We are working to remove the biggest barriers to rapid deployment of industrial carbon capture by building this manufacturing facility, which we expect will enable us to rapidly expand our order book.”

The size and cost of installing carbon capture technology has been a barrier to industry adoption. Svante’s modular solid sorbent technology is designed to capture CO₂ from industrial flue gas. It then concentrates it into a high-purity, 95-percent pipeline-grade CO₂ to prepare it for storage or further industrial use. Its approach is tailored specifically to the challenges of separating CO₂ from nitrogen in diluted flue gas, which is typically emitted at low pressures, and in dilute concentrations. Svante’s technology is targeted toward industrial decarbonization activities in fields including hydrogen, pulp and paper, lime, cement, steel, aluminum, and chemicals. Svante’s filters are also available for direct air capture and carbon dioxide removal.

In 2021, Chevron launched CNE to accelerate lower carbon business opportunities in CCUS, hydrogen, renewable fuels and products, offsets, and emerging technologies. Chevron plans to invest $10 billion in lower carbon projects through 2028 and remains committed to collaborating in new ways to accelerate progress.

Chevron Technology Ventures made an initial investment in Svante in 2014. In 2020, Chevron launched a project to pilot Svante technology to capture CO₂ from post combustion of natural gas. The project has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (project #DE-FE0031944). In collaboration with Svante and the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the technology will be tested at Chevron’s Kern River facility in San Joaquin Valley, California, with startup underway this month.

Other fundraising round participants include existing shareholders Temasek, OGCI Climate Investments, Delek US and Hesta AG, and new investors, 3M Ventures (the venture capital arm of 3M Company), Full Circle Capital, GE Vernova, Japan Energy Fund, Liberty Media, M&G Catalyst, Samsung Ventures, TechEnergy Ventures and United Airlines Ventures. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as Svante’s lead placement agent with RBC Capital Markets as co-lead placement agent. Full Circle Capital acted as financial advisor to Svante in connection with the transaction.

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The Tangguh PSC extension agreement was signed in Jakarta today by Arifin Tasrif, Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources Minister, Dwi Soetjipto, Chairman of SKK Migas (Indonesia’s upstream oil & gas regulatory body), Kathy Wu, bp regional president, Asia Pacific gas & low carbon energy, and representatives of the Tangguh partners. The signing was witnessed by Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, bp executive vice president, gas & low carbon energy.

Anja said: “This extension reflects bp’s long-term commitment to Indonesia. It will allow us to continue to build on the great work that our Indonesia team has been doing – with our partners and the strong support of the Government – to deliver much-needed natural gas safely and reliably from Tangguh to Indonesia and other markets. Today’s agreement will help open new possibilities for Tangguh’s future.”

“We would like to thank the Government of Indonesia, especially the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and SKK Migas, for their continued support for this key project. We look forward to continuing to work with Indonesia and our partners for many years to come.”

Kathy Wu added: “With the extension, we will be able to continue our important work to meet the country’s energy demand by expediting exploration activities, contributing to the state’s revenue and further supporting the local economy. With our recent addition of other blocks in Indonesia, this also reflects our confidence in the Government of Indonesia as we continue to invest in country
and deliver energy solutions.”

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The A2H well has been drilled to a total depth of 3,883 m, including a 1,275 m horizontal section within the Amungee Member B Shale in the Beetaloo Sub-Basin, Northern Territory, Australia with Tamboran Pty Limited.

The A2H well intersected the Amungee Member B Shale at 2,413 m vertical depth. Preliminary drilling data confirms a high concentration of methane.

Drilling was completed in 38 days and had a total cost of A$14.1 million (US$9.48 million) slightly ahead of pre-drill design days and budget. Falcon remains fully carried for the cost of these operations.

Up to 24 stimulation stages are planned within the Amungee Member B Shale when operations are expected to resume in the first quarter of 2023.

Stimulation and flow testing of the A2H well over the 1,275 m horizontal section will enhance the joint venture’s understanding of the potential commerciality of the Amungee Member B Shale.

The joint venture is currently undertaking a comprehensive review of all available data before finalizing the location of the final well under the Stage 3 work program, targeted to be drilled in 2023.

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The global demand for LNG is projected to reach 700 million tonnes per year by 2040 fuelling the need for greater LNG infrastructure including import receiving and export terminals, FLNG vessels and LNG carriers. Since these facilities are being designed with larger capacities and operating under increasingly more challenging conditions, advanced materials technology is required to maximise performance, reduce carbon emissions and optimise through-life costs. Fortunately, an N’GENIUS solution is on the horizon.

Patent protected in 30 countries around the world, the N’GENIUS Series is a complete ‘family’ of high strength austenitic stainless steels possessing major improvements compared to 300 Series stainless steels, and a highly economical alternative to various nickel-alloys.

As with conventional austenitic stainless steels, the N’GENIUS Series has excellent ductility and toughness at sub-zero and cryogenic temperatures. But exceptionally higher strength and vastly superior corrosion resistance makes this new family an entirely different proposition.

Its unique combination of design characteristics provides key engineering advantages for the onshore and offshore industry.

LNG piping systems, engineered products, fabricated products and equipment can be developed and manufactured with reduced wall thicknesses, offering the potential to make products and equipment lighter and smaller, significantly reducing topside weight and helping facilities overcome space and height restrictions. Any space savings would also improve accessibility regarding servicing and maintenance, repairs, upgrading or replacement work on products and equipment in the future.

In particular, large facilities with extremely heavy topsides including floating production storage offloading (FPSO) vessels, FLNGs and upstream fixed platforms, would greatly benefit from the design and construction advantages that the N’GENIUS Series can provide. This includes the potential to reduce the overall construction time and costs, as well as benefitting from easier handling and lower associated transportation costs.

Dr C.V. Roscoe, the inventor of the N’GENIUS Series, said:

“Some of these larger facilities can have topsides weighing more than 50,000 metric tonnes, which has a major impact on the design and construction cost of oil, gas and LNG projects.

“The N’GENIUS Series has an infinite range of Alloy types, variants and grades and is perfectly suited for all the different material specifications, scopes of work and products including piping systems, pumps, valves, modules, vessels and tanks. Therefore, the potential to optimise the weight and space of all these components, and in turn reduce costs, could be invaluable. It really is the total system material.”

The weight-saving benefits provided by the N’GENIUS Series are achieved from superior wrought mechanical strength properties. For example, the minimum yield and tensile strength of the N’GENIUS 304LM4N and N’GENIUS 316LM4N grades are typically 2.5 and 1.5 times higher respectively compared to the minimum strength values of conventional 304L and 316L. This enables the N’GENIUS Series to have significantly higher allowable design stresses than conventional austenitic stainless steels.

Similarly, the higher minimum Pitting Resistance Equivalent (PRE) values for N’GENIUS 304LM4N and N’GENIUS 316LM4N grades compared to those for 304L and 316L produce significant improvements in the localised corrosion and general corrosion resistance. This enables products and equipment to last longer, facilities to be designed for a longer service life, and projects made more sustainable and cost-effective.

Furthermore, the extensive range of alloy types, variants and grades which form the ‘family’ of grades in the N’GENIUS Series make it suitable for all products, in all service conditions and in the harshest process media environments.

The N’GENIUS Series will also help accelerate the wider implementation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.  Inevitably, the addition of onboard CCS for upstream fixed platforms, FLNGs and FPSOs means additional topside weight, volume and space. So a reduction in the weight and size of onboard CCS systems, as could be achieved with N’GENIUS, would make this green technology become more feasible and play a fundamental role in driving down carbon emissions.

The N’GENIUS Series can be manufactured in both wrought and cast forms, in an extensive range of products for the oil, gas and LNG industries. These include pipe, tube, fittings, flanges for piping systems, modules, heat exchangers, umbilicals and line pipe for risers, flowlines, pipelines and manifolds. N’GENIUS technology can also be applied to engineering products including pumps and valves, fabricated products such as vessels and tanks, and specialist products including casing and tubing for Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG).

An N’GENIUS technology with total system capability, truly living up to its name.

The N’GENIUS Series is available to be produced under licence by premier manufacturers of stainless steel products.

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His Excellency Mr. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of QatarEnergy, witnessed the signing of the MoU, which was held at QatarEnergy’s headquarters in Doha today. The MoU was signed by Mr. Ahmad Saeed Al-Amoodi, QatarEnergy’s Executive Vice President, Surface Development & Sustainability and Mr. Joseph Anis, the President & CEO of GE Gas Power Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

In remarks on this occasion, His Excellency Minister Al-Kaabi stressed QatarEnergy’s strong commitment to mitigating the effects of climate change.

“This MoU affirms QatarEnergy’s Sustainability Strategy and our efforts to implement effective measures to curb emissions and produce cleaner energy using the latest proven emissions reduction technologies. We are pleased to work with GE, who is a strategic partner, to pursue all available avenues including the use of clean energy carriers such as hydrogen as a fuel for gas turbines coupled with efficient and affordable carbon capturing technologies from such turbines, on an unprecedented scale, to achieve a substantial reduction in CO₂ emissions,” H.E. Minister Al-Kaabi said.

On his part, Mr. Joseph Anis said, “QatarEnergy has a clear vision to lead the transition to a lower carbon industrial landscape. GE has been honored to support the development of Qatar’s energy infrastructure for decades and we are delighted to collaborate with QatarEnergy on their evolving sustainability journey. Exploring pre- combustion technologies such as the use of low carbon fuels to generate power, and post combustion technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration, can potentially significantly reduce the CO₂ emissions from QatarEnergy’s facilities. Looking ahead, Qatar has the possibility of becoming a leading global player in the areas of hydrogen, ammonia, and CCS by helping to pilot and scale up these technologies for the rest of the world.”

QatarEnergy has recently updated its Sustainability Strategy, which outlines multiple initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including flagship initiatives such as the further deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technology to capture over 11 million tons per annum of CO₂ in Qatar by 2035. These projects are expected to further reduce the carbon intensity of Qatar’s LNG facilities by 35%, and of its upstream facilities by 25% (compared to previous targets of 25% and 15%, respectively) bolstering Qatar’s commitment to responsibly supply LNG at scale in support of the energy transition.

The roadmap includes the development of carbon capture and sequestration, the utilization of hydrogen, and the potential usage of ammonia in GE gas turbines to reduce their carbon emissions.

About QatarEnergy

QatarEnergy is an integrated energy company committed to the sustainable development of cleaner energy resources as part of the energy transition in the State of Qatar and beyond.

We are the world leader in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) – a cleaner, more flexible, and reliable source of energy, and an integral partner in the global energy transition. Our activities cover the entire spectrum of the oil and gas value chain and include the exploration, production, processing, refining, marketing, trading, and sales of energy products and commodities.

As “Your Energy Transition Partner”, QatarEnergy is committed to building a better and brighter future by helping meet today’s energy needs, while safeguarding our environment and natural resources for generations to come, bound by the highest standards of sustainable human, socio-economic, and environmental development.

About GE Gas Power

GE Gas Power, an integral part of the GE Vernova portfolio of energy businesses, is a world leader in natural gas power technology, services, and solutions. Through relentless innovation and continuous collaboration with our customers, we are providing more advanced, cleaner, and efficient power that people depend on today and building the energy technologies of the future. With the world’s largest installed base of gas turbines and more than 670 million operating hours across GE’s installed fleet, we offer advanced technology and a level of experience that’s unmatched in the industry to build, operate, and maintain leading gas power plants.

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The company will use the Transocean Norge harsh-environment semi-submersible rig to drill 17 wells, six of which will be for OMV and 11 will be for Wintershall Dea.

The two companies also signed an exclusive partnership with Transocean to use the Transocean Norge rig for the drilling of all firm and additional potential wells from 2023 to 2027.

Wintershall Dea Norge managing director Michael Zechner said: “Securing the ‘Transocean Norge’ with Transocean means we have a modern and fit for purpose rig with a best-in class emission footprint, and a drilling partner to support our continued growth on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.”

OMV Norge general manager Knut Mauseth said: “This long-term contract is an important milestone in the execution of the Berling development project. In addition, we have secured a rig to one of our upcoming exploration wells.”

For Wintershall Dea, the scope of the contract includes the drilling of four exploration wells, four development wells for the Maria Revitalisation project, and three development wells at Dvalin North in the North Sea.

The contract scope for OMV includes drilling three development wells for the Berling project and two exploration wells.

Through a joint venture with Hayfin Capital Management, Transocean holds a stake of 33% in the Transocean Norge rig. The remaining 67% stake is held by affiliates of Hayfin.

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The Solsort development consist of two wells. The Solsort oil and gas will be produced via the Syd Arne installation operated by INEOS. First oil and gas from Solsort is expected in Q4 2023. The production from Solsort will be a valuable contribution to Danish and European energy supply and self-sufficiency. When Solsort starts production the gas from INEOS will cover up to 10 % of the Danish gas consumption.

David Bucknall, CEO INEOS Energy said: “The sanction of the development of Solsort fits well with our overall investment strategy in Denmark of optimizing already existing infrastructure to support security of supply and at the same time investing into storage of CO2 to support the green transition. There will be a need for oil and gas for many years to come but at the same time we need to find new and green solutions. INEOS has the ambition to provide both”.

Mads Weng Gade, Head of INEOS Energy DK said: “The decision to develop the Solsort field – the first Danish oil and gas development in many years in Denmark – represents an important step to our business and strengthens the activities of INEOS in Denmark. The Solsort production will be a valuable contribution to Danish and European energy independency and self-sufficiency in a difficult period for Europe.”

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