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[waldron] 06/6/2016 20:52

French energy group Engie is selling natural gas blocks in Brazil as part of a global plan to focus on renewable ...

[the grumpy old men] 26/5/2016 18:38

The Hazelwood mine operator Engie is playing down suggestions the Latrobe Valley brown-coal power station will be shut down.

The company's chief executive Isabelle Kocher has told a French senate committee in Paris yesterday it was considering all possible scenarios for Hazelwood, including selling up or closing it down.

In a statement, a spokesman for Engie Australia said no decision had been made about its future.

"Some have interpreted her comments as Engie saying it has decided to close Hazelwood. That is not the case," a spokesman for Engie Australia said in a statement.

"Any decisions on investment, divestment or closure are made by the Engie board, with approval by shareholders. No such decision has been made regarding Hazelwood.

"As we have communicated on many occasions, the energy industry nationally, and particularly the Hazelwood business, is facing a range of significant challenges, not the least of which are the difficult trading conditions which continue to be experienced in the National Electricity Market.

"Hazelwood is a low-cost generator of electricity, has an operating licence until 2034 and is a reliable contributor to the NEM [National Electricity Market], where it supplies between 20 and 25 per cent."

Victoria Resources Minister Wade Noonan said there were "no immediate plans for the sale or closure of the Hazelwood coal mine".

"The Government has been in contact with the mine's owner Engie about this matter and I'm advised that no decision has been made," Mr Noonan said.

"Those discussions will continue.

"As the state's new Resources Minister I look forward to meeting with the Latrobe Valley's coal generators as well as local residents to discuss these issues."
Greens call for urgent transition plan

Victorian Greens MP Ellen Sandell, the party's energy spokesperson, said closure was the only option.

"It's very unlikely that anyone will buy an old broken down power station like Hazelwood," she said.

"We know that coal is on its way out globally so the closure is inevitable which is what we've been saying for a long time.

"What this means is we urgently need leadership from the Victorian Labor Government to put in a transition plan so that the workers and the community have alternative jobs for when Hazelwood closes, which might be a lot sooner than expected.

The Nationals' Member for Morwell Russell Northe said the State Government must work to cushion the blow for the Latrobe Valley when Hazelwood does close.

"It is important from my perspective that we don't have a closure at a point in time.

"I think if there was gradual shut down of units that would be a far better proposition for any transition in the Latrobe Valley," Mr Northe said.

"A gradual closure gives the opportunity for staff, employees to better cater for that type of transition.

"We must not forget it's not just the direct employment. There are many small and medium businesses reliant on our power generators."
Environment lobby group says Australia can manage without Hazelwood

Environment Victoria campaign manager Nick Aberle said Australia could still meet its energy needs if Hazelwood closed.

"We've effectively got more generation capacity that we need [on the east coast], even on the hottest afternoon," he said.

"We could close Hazelwood with no risk of supply in Victoria.

Mr Aberle said cutting pollution from the Latrobe Valley's power station was important.

"It's not to say we could willy-nilly start closing things down but what it does mean is we do need to seriously start planning this transition away from coal and towards renewable energy," he said.

The company is facing legal action from both Worksafe and the Environment Protection Authority over the Hazelwood mine fire in 2014.

The fire, which was in an open-cut coal mine, blanketed Morwell in thick, acrid smoke.

An inquiry into the fire made 32 recommendations including that the Victorian Government spend $27.3 million to establish a Latrobe Valley Health Zone and the bond amount paid by mining companies increase by 50 per cent of the estimated costs.

The Victorian Government has since committed to implementing all of the recommendations, and has announced a $51.2 million package in response.

The operator of the Hazelwood mine was formally known as GDF Suez and is now called Engie.

[sarkasm] 24/5/2016 07:54

U.K. Region Approves First Fracking Permit Since 2011
24/05/2016 1:20am
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Today : Tuesday 24 May 2016
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LONDON—An English county government on Monday approved an application for what could be the first permit to frack for shale gas in Western Europe since 2011.

The North Yorkshire County Council voted 7-4 to allow U.K.-based Third Energy to use hydraulic fracturing to extract shale gas from an existing natural gas well in Kirby Misperton in northern England.

"This approval is a huge responsibility. We will have to deliver on our commitment…to undertake this operation safely and without impacting on the local environment," said Rasik Valand, chief executive of privately held Third Energy.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process of using water, sand and chemicals to release oil and gas trapped in underground rock. The widespread use of the practice reinvigorated the U.S. onshore oil-and-gas industry over the last decade.

The U.K., which the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates has 26 trillion cubic feet of shale gas reserves, is one of the few countries in Europe whose laws allow fracking. But local governments haven't awarded permits for companies to start the process.

Prime Minister David Cameron is eager to replicate the U.S. fracking boom in hopes of reducing Britain's reliance on imported gas and offsetting declines in production from country's aging fields in the North Sea.

But companies that have proposed fracking in the U.K. have hit opposition from environmental groups and local residents in the rural areas where prospectors want to drill.

Last summer, the Lancashire Council in northwest England rejected applications by Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. to frack at two sites. Cuadrilla is appealing the decision and hopes to get a decision later this year.

Britain has since changed planning rules to speed up the process and to allow government intervention to approve or reject shale-gas drilling permits.

The government's "intent is good, but the delivery is not," Cuadrilla Chief Executive Francis Egan said at a conference in London last week. "Investors have patience but it's not limitless," he added.

Cuadrilla first submitted its applications to drill and frack in 2014. Third Energy submitted its applications a year ago.

According to the U.S. EIA estimate, Britain's shale-gas reserves amount to triple the country's current annual gas consumption.

But so far only one well has been fracked for shale gas—by Cuadrilla in 2011. The government imposed a moratorium after those fracking activities caused minor earthquakes nearby. Britain lifted the moratorium in 2012, but there has been no fracking since.

Analysts have said that even in the most favorable circumstances, large scale development is at least five to 10 years away.

France's Total SA and utility Engie SA along with tiny shale explorers IGas Energy PLC, Egdon Resources, Celtique Energie Petroleum Ltd and Swiss chemicals giant Ineos also have licenses to explore onshore for shale gas.

Write to Selina Williams at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 23, 2016 21:05 ET (01:05 GMT)

[waldron] 22/5/2016 19:59

French Utility Engie Enters Battery Storage Business With Acquisition Of 80% Stake In Green Charge Networks

May 22nd, 2016 by James Ayre

The French utility company Engie has acquired an 80% stake in the Californian firm Green Charge Networks, according to recent reports — marking the company’s entrance into the battery storage sector.

The majority acquisition of the Californian company follows a similar move made recently by Engie’s fellow French utility company Total — a $1.1 billion purchase of shares of the lithium-ion battery technology company Saft.

green charge networks

While the specifics of the recent deal between Engie and Green Charge Networks haven’t been publicly revealed, it seems likely that Engie will be putting some of its considerable resources at the disposal of the American firm. Green Charge Networks currently maintains offices in San Diego, Santa Clara, and New York.

The current Green Charge Networks portfolio consists of 48 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy storage projects deployed or under construction — at 150 different sites around the US. Most of this project capacity pertains to industrial and commercial clients — in particular as a means of load management for those to whom such an approach can lead to notable savings.

Despite being a French company, Engie already possesses a large, and growing, network of clients in North America. The company has also begun expanding into the renewable energy sector — this includes the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding with the South African firm Eskom that will see 100 megawatts (MW) of new concentrating solar power (CSP) projects developed.

The company also recently invested in the American cloud-based energy service management software Tendril.

The CEO and President of Engie’s North America business unit, Frank Demaille, commented: “This acquisition will reinforce Engie’s strengths and skills in the activities of decentralized energy management, off-grid solutions, and power reliability.”

The CEO of Green Charge Networks, Vic Shao, commented as well: “Engie’s long-term financial and commercial support presents an opportunity to scale our business to a completely new

[waldron] 20/5/2016 18:31

Britain's Rugeley coal-fired power plant to close by end of June - Engie

Britain's Rugeley coal power plant will close by the end of June 2016 because of worsening conditions for coal generation, operator Engie said on Friday.

The 1 gigawatt plant in the West Midlands county of Staffordshire is jointly owned by French power and gas group Engie and Mitsui & Co and can provide enough electricity to power a million homes.

A surge in renewable energy production and cheap gas prices has effectively priced coal-fired power plants out of the market in Britain.

"Engie is planning a staged reduction in the number of employees on site in line with its decommissioning plan," the company said, ruling out compulsory redundancies before the end of June.

British power company SSE will keep open its Fiddler's Ferry coal-fired power station near Manchester until at least March 31, 2017, having previously said it was likely to close this year.

(Corrects paragraph 4 to say Engie has only ruled out compulsory redundancies before the end of June, not altogether.)

(Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic in Milan; Editing by David Goodman)

[grupo guitarlumber] 19/5/2016 07:03

Engie Eyes Japan’s Liberalized Power Market Amid LNG Price Crash
Stephen Stapczynski


Engie SA may participate in Japan’s recently fully liberalized power market as LNG suppliers seek new revenue streams amid a price crash.

The Courbevoie, France-based company that was formerly GDF Suez partnered last year with Japan’s second-biggest utility Kansai Electric Power Co. to swap liquefied natural gas cargoes, and also supplies fuel to Tohoku Electric Power Co. LNG prices have plunged about 70 percent over the past 19 months amid a global supply glut.

“Engie is carefully monitoring the opening of energy markets in Japan, and is at the beginning of its consideration,”; said Patricia Marie, a spokeswoman for Engie. “We could consider entering the electricity and gas trading markets with local partners as the industry’s liberalization progresses.”

Japan liberalized its retail power market last month and will open its natural gas market to new entrants in April 2017. The nation is aiming by March to list power futures on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, and will start test trading with more than 10 companies as early as May 30. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in December the country’s power market was valued at 18 trillion yen ($164 billion) in the year ending March 2015.

LNG producers including Total SA, Woodside Petroleum Ltd. are seeking to invest more in downstream activities like regasification terminals, pipelines and power plants to boost demand. Total’s full integration makes it resilient and it may invest in an independent power plant, Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said last month.

“We have seen many gas companies go to wire to monetize their supply,” Bob Fryklund, chief upstream analyst at IHS Inc., said in an e-mail. More gas companies will “look at this as a better way to get a higher overall margin for their supply.”
Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

[sarkasm] 16/5/2016 15:16

New head of Engie says low power prices the new norm

New head of Engie says low power prices the new norm
16/05/2016
By Diarmaid Williams
International Digital Editor

Isabelle Kocher, the new chief executive of Engie, believes that low European electricity prices are here to stay, despite hopes expressed by some utility chiefs that the historic lows seen over the last five years would be temporary.

“I do not think that this is cyclical. I think that the price of electricity has no reason to rise. It will never be like it Isabelle Kocherwas before,” Kocher told the Financial Times.

New realities have pressed the company into transforming its business model, with Engie selling €15bn worth of non-renewable energy assets, mostly in exploration and production, coal-fired power plants and US gas plants, over the next three years, replacing all that with €22bn in renewable energy, energy services such as heating and cooling networks, and decentralised energy technology.

Engie has written off nearly €24bn worth of assets over the past two years, as many of its gas power plants become uneconomical. Ms Kocher said Engie will try to find regulated, not market based, energy contracts to protect itself from further price declines.

The price of a megawatt hour in western Europe has virtually divided by two. In Germany it has fallen from €60 per megawatt-hour in 2011 to around €25 this year. The French price has moved from around €56 per MWh to around €30.

The transition to renewables in Europe and across the world is set to keep prices low for the foreseeable future, although some companies, including EDF, have predicted electricity prices in Europe will start to go up again after two or three years.

[waldron] 16/5/2016 05:46

Ban on Shale Imports Could Hurt France: Lobby Group

As France’s energy and environment minister Segolene Royal seeks a ban on shale gas imports from the US, Jean-Louis Schilansky, director of the Non-Conventional Hydrocarbons Center (CHNC) questions the feasibility of the proposal and its potential consequences in an interview with NGE. Schilansky also stresses the benefits of US imports for the European gas market.

Mr Schilansky, Segolene Royal told lawmakers May 10 she is willing to find a “legal way” to prevent the import of non-conventional US LNG and asking French companies in contact wiith Cheniere Energy to look for other sources of supply producing only conventional gas. As an expert on issues related to shale gas developments, do you think her proposal is feasible giving the fact that half of the US LNG comes from shale gas resources?

First, let’s acknowledging that there is no difference between conventional and unconventional reserves. It’s the same product. In the US, they all go into the same pipes. There is no way to segregate shale gas from gas of other sorts of gas. It’s not a surprise. We knew that the US will export some of its gas resources. We have seen the construction of export terminals followed by the first exports.

EDF and Engie, which signed contracts with Cheniere, see US LNG as an opportunity to diversify the supply.

If we are serious about not importing non-conventional resources, we may have to ban all gas imports from the US but shale gas is not just an American phenomenon, it’s getting global. Others countries will develop their own non-conventional resources. Relying on countries which are exporting only conventional gas may be possible today but what are we going to do if Russia or Algeria start producing shale gas? Stop imports from these two countries? A ban on US imports into France would raise questions for the future. Moreover, we should look if such a decision would be in conformity with European and international free trades agreements.

Gas suppliers including Russia, Norway and Algeria may be exporting only conventional resource but we should also look at the environmental conditions in which the Russian gas is produced and transported through thousands of kilometres of pipelines. If we are raising environment concerns, we’d better look at the broad picture.

US LNG may raise some concerns in France, it may also provide new opportunities with lower prices.
How might the arrival of US LNG reshape the gas market in Europe or “disrupt the old order” as Cheniere's Vice President for Strategy Andrew Walker recently argued during a conference organised by the Atlantic Council in Washington DC on 28 April?


The entry of a new competitor in the European gas market will undoubtedly have an impact on gas prices. First, it will be limited giving that US imports will represent a small part of all imports but if the volumes increase, and they certainly will, it’s going to reduce the energy bills for consumers.

Energy prices are regulated but they will include new transportation costs. US imports will likely create a new market balance with lower prices across the board: not just American imports but also from Russia and Norway. Don’t expect miracles either, as gas prices are already low in Europe. It going to be a problem for historic gas exporters to Europe. "A new order" may be a little bit exaggerated but still it’s a major development.

Europe is a priority for US exports with South America: Brazil has already received its first US LNG – then there will be imports to Asia, Japan in particular. The European market is very accessible."

Thank you very much, Mr Schilansky



Kevin Bonnaud

[la forge] 10/5/2016 21:33

Engie and Susi sign MOU for energy storage

Published 10 May 2016
Last Updated 10 May 2016 19:02

Andy Cook



Engie has signed a €50 million memorandum of understanding with Swiss-based infrastructure fund Susi Partners to co-finance an initial programme of around 100MW of energy storage capacity

[waldron] 06/5/2016 05:32

Weekly Overview: Engie, LNG – and Services Merger Off the Menu

This week saw the new CEO of Engie, Isabelle Kocher, present her plan for a new-look French state-run behemoth, ready to take on the challenges of a greener future. The former CFO, she stepped up from deputy to full CEO at the start of this month, replacing CEO Gerard Mestrallet and becoming the first female CEO of a top French firm.

Mestrallet had led Engie/GDF Suez since the 2008 merger between the state-owned utility and Suez, which he had led since 1995. She had been his successor-in-waiting for a year or more.

Given the plan’s references to consultations with staff representatives – and Kocher having already talked of disposals – there could be some big changes in the offing.

The company wants to boost its exposure to renewable energy sources and depend less on thermal energy and mature markets in Europe.

It has not yet gone as far as Germany’s E.ON, another company encumbered with the legacies of the past: hoovering up new production by signing long-term oil indexed gas purchase contracts, chiefly from Russia, left it ill-equipped to deal with the changing landscape.

This strategy had the effect of stifling competition; but it backfired when the eventual arrival of competitive gas supply coincided with collapsing industrial demand. This left Europe’s majors holding out-of-the-money contracts with companies such as Gazprom that they have been struggling to renegotiate for years. Both E.ON subsidiary Uniper and Engie are planning to join Gazprom in building Nord Stream 2.

Commenting on the shake-up of his national champion, Societe Generale’s senior European gas and LNG analyst Thierry Bros told NGE that problems can arise when big, centralised companies go green and hatch plans to build solar electricity schemes in Mozambique or wind farms in Turkey, for example.

E.ON cut itself in two, because it recognised that the same company cannot do both centralised and decentralised electricity, he said. Uniper is the untrendy part of it, embodying the assets that Ruhrgas built up, and the contracts and infrastructure that society needs – for the present decade at least.

E.ON and Engie were among those companies that fiercely resisted unbundling but if they had been made to years ago they would not be here today – they would be like National Grid, Centrica and – until recently – BG, Bros said.

In the late 1990s the former monopoly British Gas voluntarily broke itself up, realising the three activities of upstream production, trade and supply and gas transportation did not belong under one roof. Shareholders were rewarded when it demerged as their combined dividend rose.

The shares in upstream arm, BG, traded at a premium while it was regarded as being best in class; but that did perception did not survive the profit warnings that followed the series of problems a few years ago: cost-overruns in Australia, delays in Brazil and the lack of gas to liquefy and of payment in Egypt. While these were not all its fault, they weakened it, and in the process Shell’s argument for owning it – which never led anywhere hitherto – began to gain credibility.

That $54bn deal, finalised in late February, met all the regulatory requirements and now a wave of asset disposals, including those in the UK North Sea, is in the offing.

BG made a contribution to Shell’s results, especially in the area of LNG, where it now has a larger portfolio of destination-free cargoes for sale than anyone else. LNG sales volumes of 12.29mn mt were up by a quarter year-on-year in Q1 2016, thanks to BG’s assets, while production was up 14%, to 7.04mn metric tons.

The destination-free volume is set to grow as well, with the commissioning phase of the first train of Sabine Pass now effectively over and contractual deliveries starting in earnest. Shell now is one of the buyers, and BG secured the lowest fees as it was Cheniere’s first customer.

Much has been made of the cargoes’ arrival in Europe, although so far six of the seven cargoes have gone elsewhere: Dubai, Brazil, Argentina and India.

The architect of BG’s merchant LNG business, Martin Houston, has since February been in partnership with the architect of Cheniere’s LNG business, Charif Souki, in Tellurian Energy. Until last year, Houston ran Parallax Energy, with funding to develop an LNG business and had been in talks with Cheniere. The two individuals are now seeking to compete with Cheniere in LNG.

Cheniere still has only an interim CEO, following CEO Souki's December 2015 dismissal at the hands of activist shareholder, Carl Icahn. A full-time CEO is expected to be appointed in the coming months, after which the company’s new direction should become clearer. So far, the view has been that it will be a lot more cautious than formerly.
Halliburton-Baker Hughes Deal Squashed

A merger that did not come off was the Halliburton/Baker Hughes tie-up: anti-trust regulators deemed the new company would be too big, and the proposed divestments inadequate to create real competition.

Their customers wrote to regulators to complain that the new company's prices might go up, although it was the fall in the oil price and the subsequent cancelling or reneging on upstream service contracts that has left this sector in such dire straits today.

Baker Hughes CEO Martin Craighead described the attempt as an “extremely complex, global transaction and, ultimately, a solution could not be found to satisfy the antitrust concerns of regulators, both in the US and abroad."

Ratings agency Moody’s might downgrade its ratings for both by early June. It said May 2 that it has reassessed the companies' standalone financial and operating performance in light of the terminated merger and in the context of the very weak oilfield services operating environment.

When the deal was announced Halliburton was the largest, and Baker Hughes the third largest, oil-field services companies.

This leaves Baker Hughes with a $3.5bn break fee, which it might need to shore up its balance sheet, or to help it buy other companies with complementary activities without posing a threat to the rest of the market, such as last year’s Schlumberger-Cameron takeover.



William Powell



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