Natural Gas

The September 2021 edition of the IRMO Brief deals with energy security of the Balkans and the upcoming changes in the energy security of the region. Year 2023 could bring a dramatic overhaul on the energy map of the Western Balkans countries, as by then the derogation from EU environmental regulation for a number of thermal power plants expires while reliability of lignite mines and power plants deteriorates. As the region’s energy supply is to a large extent dependent on lignite-fired power plants, the 2023 will be a turning point for the Balkans in terms of energy supply. At the same time, the Western Balkan countries are aware of the importance of the EU Green Agenda and that the replacement of coal by other energy sources, is at the core of EU climate policy. The author also analyses the energy map Europe after the completion of the Nord Stream 2 and Turk Stream gas pipeline projects as well as closures of nuclear and coal plants and phase out of Groningen gas field , and positions the role of the Balkans in the overall energy security of Europe. Paper address the risk that developments in Balkans affect credibility of the EU promotion of the rule of law, climate change awareness and human rights.  Findings are confirmed by recent failures in gas and power supply across the region and spike in wholesale prices.

This paper will discuss the political and legal aspects of the maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the factors relevant to their conciliation. The first part of the paper introduces the Mediterranean Sea and the relevance of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) regime in its basins. Subsequently, the author summarizes relevant historical cleavages in the Levant Basin, with a focus on relevant modern Lebanese-Israeli, Lebanese-Syrian and inter-Cypriot events. Part III will discuss the increasing interest in EEZ delimitation over the past decade due to hydrocarbon prospects in the Eastern Mediterranean and the geopolitical and maritime challenges that have since taken shape. Finally, based on the Law of the Sea and previous examples from around the world, the author discusses relevant legal avenues for achieving balanced solutions to maritime tensions in the region and presents the most relevant criteria in delimiting maritime boundaries.

Nigeria is endowed with substantial amounts of energy resources, and it has been making large profits from their export. However, windfall revenues have also been affecting the Government’s responsiveness and accountability, and they have brought it into collusive relationship with international oil and gas companies operating in the country. A skewed distribution of petroleum resources costs and benefits, as well as the dependence on exports exposing the public finances to volatility in the international markets have represented further major issues. As a result, in spite of the resource abundance, energy access and power generation still represent urgent issues for action in the country. Solid biomass accounts for 74% of the primary energy consumption, while the electrification rate stands at 34% in rural areas. Active power plants are mainly gas-fired, but they face capacity, maintenance, and financial constraints. While historically natural gas has been disregarded or flared into the atmosphere because it was considered a by-product of oil due to lacking market conditions and processing capacity, today the development of a domestic market for natural gas is seen as a key priority to guarantee energy security and boost industrial development in Nigeria. A more efficient and equitable governance of the sector and management of export revenues can play a major role in this sense. In this context, this paper highlights the main current issues and underpins key policy conditions for this transition to take place in Nigeria.

Knowledge of the in‐situ sound velocity of drilling mud can be used in mud‐pulse acoustic telemetry for evaluating the presence and amount of gas invasion in the drilling mud. We propose a model for calculating the in‐situ density and sound velocity of water‐based and oil‐based drilling muds containing formation gas. Drilling muds are modeled as a suspension of clay particles and high‐gravity solids in water or oil, with the acoustic properties of these fluids depending on pressure and temperature. Since mud at different depths experiences different pressures and temperatures, downhole mud weights can be significantly different from those measured at the surface. Taking this fact into consideration, we assume constant clay composition and obtained the fraction of high‐gravity solids to balance the formation pressure corresponding to a given drilling plan. This gives the in‐situ density of the drilling mud, which together with the bulk moduli of the single constituents allow us to co...

• Gazprom on the European market: Results of November sales on Gazprom’s ESP; ESP sales growing in flexibility; German lower house of parliament approves changes to domestic legislation, bringing it into line with EU Third Gas Directive; Hungarian Foreign Minister meets Gazprom Chairman to discuss new long-term supply contract
• Nord Stream: Russian Deputy Energy Minister announces Nord Stream 2 start up in ‘mid 2020’; EUGAL pipeline on course for 1st of January launch
• Southern Corridor: Both lines of Turkish Stream are filled up with gas; Bulgartransgaz offers new south-to-north pipeline capacity from 1st of January 2020
• Ukraine: Gazprom submits proposal for Ukraine transit deal; Swedish court rejects Gazprom appeal against first arbitration award – Further hearings on second and third awards expected in 2020
• Asia: Gazprom launches pipeline gas deliveries to China via Power of Siberia; Gazprom makes first LNG delivery to Mongolia – by rail

In this analysis, we considered three building types that offer the most savings potential: residences, offices, and retail stores. Each building type was characterized in detail by Pre-1980 (old) or 1980 + (new) construction vintage and with natural gas or electricity as heating ...

Industrial control systems are nowadays exposed in environments with rapid and unstable parameter changes and uses measuring equipments with critical output sensitivity. In the case of thermal gas analyzer, measurement errors are contributed by temperature, gas flow, and pressure. Error compensation is a key problem for these control systems. In recent years, it has been proven in the literature that artificial neural network (ANN) is a reliable and low cost solution to manage errors. Among all the algorithms of ANN, the back propagation is commonly used because of its simplicity and learning methodology is easy to realize. However, it has two notable drawbacks: (a) it is likely to run into local minimum, and (b) convergence is slow. Thermal conductivity gas analyzer often works in adverse surroundings, which requires fast and accurate measurements. Therefore, a strong learning network is needed. This paper proposes a novel thermal gas analyzer using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. The effectiveness and validity of the proposed method is verified by simulation studies using MATLAB. Fuzzy membership rules are created to allow regulation of learning parameters. Further, the fuzzy adaptive network model is constructed to train large data samples while the high precision compensation of sensor error is realized by the improved flow. Simulation results reveal that the convergence speed and output accuracy is improved and the learning parameters in thermal gas analyzer are automatically corrected by the proposed method in comparison with the back propagation algorithm of artificial neural network.

Asia’s share of global demand for natural gas has increased from 13 to 18 per cent over the past decade, and the overall consumption has nearly doubled. At the same time, there is a
growing gap between regional natural gas demand and supply, with increasing reliance on imports. Regional liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports are forecast to increase by 60 per cent by 2030, and natural gas has been described as Asia’s “fuel of the future”. Asian LNG importers seek to diversify their supplier mix as much as possible to lower the prices and to reduce economic vulnerability to future disruptions or the failure of any one producer to provide adequate supplies. This paper explores major regional importers’ approaches to LNG import diversification between 2002 and 2012 and explains why patterns of LNG imports differ between states and over time. The focus of the paper is on five largest LNG importers in the region: China, India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.