Wildcat's Pick of the Week.

Every Monday, Wildcat will give you a headstart on the coming week, as well as a round-up of what mattered in the previous week.

Week Ahead

Monday, 18 June: Negotiations between six world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme expected to resume; World National Oil Companies Congress, London (until Friday); World National Oil Companies Gas Congress, London (until Tuesday), Iraq Petroleum 2012, London (until Wednesday); meeting in the European Parliament’s ITRE committee (until Wednesday)

Tuesday, 19 June: Multilateral meeting on the EU’s Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan, Copenhagen; Ophir Energy’s annual general meeting; Regal Petroleum’s annual general meeting

Wednesday, 20 June: Heritage Oil’s annual general meeting; US Department of the Interior to hold a lease sale for the Central Gulf of Mexico

Thursday, 21 June: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to rule on pipeline operator APA Group’s divestment programme

Monday, 25 June:  Court hearing of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine’s case against Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko over gas contracts with Russia; Gas Storage, London (until Tuesday)

Winners & Losers

Winner: This week proved to be another gas bonanza for East African drillers, with Cove Energy announcing another major gas find in Mozambique and Statoil increasing its preliminary resource estimate for Block 2, offshore Tanzania by 85 billion cubic metres. Investors are betting this latest drilling success will prompt competing bidders to trump PTT’s offer of $1.92 billion to acquire London-listed Cove.

Winner: Turkmenistan stepped into the gas industry limelight this week, with BP doubling its estimates of the country’s proven gas reserves over the last year. Turkmenistan had proven gas reserves of 24.3 trillion cubic metres as of the end of 2011, almost double the previous year’s appraisal of 13.4 tcm, BP said in its 2012 Statistical Review of World Energy, published on Thursday.

Loser: China Africa Sunlight Energy has been ordered to stop CBM exploration in Zimbabwe after failing an environmental impact assessment. “The company has been ordered to submit a fresh report, and, until then, China-Africa Sunlight Energy will not be conducting any coal and CBM exploration in Gwayi,” Provincial Manager Chipo Zuze Mpofu of the Environmental Management Agency said.

Loser: Russia failed to reach agreement with China on the long-stalled gas talks during Putin’s three day trip to Beijing. Talks between the two counties stalled following disagreement over pricing and transport routes, with China preferring delivery to its Eastern and undersupplied market.

Loser: The numerous LNG export projects planned for Queensland in Australia could fail to hurdle the Great Barrier Reef. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has recommended that an independent review be conducted on the management of Gladstone Harbour, the site of at least three planned LNG export facilities on Curtis Island. The island falls inside the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area.

Loser: The European Union gas consumption dropped by 9.9% in 2011 – the largest decline in on record – because of the weak economy, high gas prices and “continued growth in renewable power generation”, oil major BP said on Wednesday for the launch of the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2012. Gas production in the region dropped by 11.4% because of a combination of mature fields, maintenance and weak consumption. Gas output in the UK dropped by a staggering 20.8%.

Quotes of the Week

“I’m not aware of any dialogue between the government of the Philippines and the ADB regarding this project,” Pil-Bae Soung, senior adviser and practice leader for energy at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), told Interfax on Wednesday in response to local media reports implying that the ADB was ‘keen’ on financing the first phase of the so-called BatMan project.

“The centre of gravity for world energy consumption continue to shift from the OECD to emerging economies, especially in Asia,” BP said on Wednesday when it released its Statistical Review of World Energy 2012.

“In Poland we are having our own shale revolution, while countries in North Africa are having [political] revolutions,” Marek Karabula, former vice-president of the management board for Poland’s PGNiG, said at the Power-Gen Europe conference in Cologne on Wednesday. Karabula anticipates 11 bcm/y of shale gas production in the country.

Week in Numbers

Seeing red

$30 million: The amount Songas said Tanesco owes it for power payments

$300 million: The loan Tanesco is trying to secure to help with debts

$155%: The electricity tariff increase Tanesco failed to get

Source: Songas

Doubling up

24.3 tcm: New BP estimates of Turkmenistan’s gas reserves

13.4 tcm: The previous year’s estimate of the same reserves

65 tcm: The amount of Turkmen gas to be exported to China after a new deal

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2012

Stop-loss

$3.40/MMBtu: Price of Indonesian LNG exports from Tangguh to China

$4 billion: Indonesia’s estimated annual loss from the below-market price

$21.2/MMBtu: The crude-linked price Indonesia would like to charge China

Source: Interfax