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 1 October: Beginning of gas year 2013; East Africa Oil & Gas Conference, London (until Wednesday); Johnson Rice 4th Annual Energy Conference, New Orleans (until Thursday).

Tuesday 2 October: Gas Forum 2012 Annual Conference, London; World Independent Oil Companies Congress, London (until Thursday).

Wednesday 3 October: GDF Suez roadshows, Edinburgh and Switzerland; Breakfast Briefing: The UK Oil and Gas Tax Regime – an Engine for Growth, London; European Gas Policy Forum 2012, Brussels; Baghdad International Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition, Baghdad (until Friday).

Thursday 4 October: GDF Suez roadshow, Netherlands; Gas to Liquids Conference, London (until Friday); Buru Energy acquisition in Canning Basin, Australia expected to be completed; 8th Annual Arctic Oil & Gas Conference, Oslo (until Friday)

Monday 8 October: Gastech Conference & Exhibition, London (until Thursday)

Winners & Losers

Winner: China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has received the Afghan government’s approval for a cooperation framework agreement it signed in June with the Afghan Ministry of Mines for joint oil and gas exploration projects, China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday. CNPC began exploration and development of three blocks in northern Afghanistan in June. Elsewhere, CNPC also signed a memorandum of understanding this week with Kazakhstan’s state-controlled Kasmunaigas. The agreement calls on CNPC to set up a business for the production of high-tech oil and gas equipment in western Kazakhstan.

Winner: Trading at the newly inaugurated Zeebrugge Trading Point (ZPT) began on Thursday, Anglo-Dutch energy exchange APX-Endex announced. The new ZPT market has been launched in conjunction with the implementation of a new entry/exit model at the Belgian hub. The first trade on the ZPT took place on Wednesday, for 30 MW at a price of €25.50 ($33.026) per MWh for the working-days-next-week contract, APX said.

Winner: Brazil’s independent oil and gas companies saw a change of fortune this week, with OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes and HRT Participações em Petroleo releasing positive statements on Monday about onshore and offshore exploration. OGX Maranhão received a licence from the state of Maranhão to begin gas production in the Gavião Real and Gavião Azul fields in the northern Parnaíba Basin. HRT also said on Monday it would reveal plans for gas from the Solimões Basin in the Amazon jungle region, where it holds a 55% operating stake in five exploration blocks.

Loser: New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation will wait to decide on whether to allow high-volume fracking in the state until a study of the potential public health effects is complete and has been reviewed by the New York health commissioner. The department did not say how long the study may take.

Loser: Work at the site of the first LNG import terminal in the Philippines has been put on hold following concerns raised by the provincial government in Quezon, a Department of Energy official said on Tuesday. The officials said the concerns were partly related to “blasting activities” at the site. The project is being developed by Australia-listed Energy World Corp.

Loser: Gas is losing out to coal as a feedstock for electricity generation in the UK because of high gas prices, the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change said on Thursday. Gas accounted for 29.8% of the country’s total electricity generation in Q2 2012, its lowest Q2 share in 14 years. Coal accounted for 36.1%, its highest Q2 share in the same period. Gas production in the UK also suffered, falling by 13.9% to 112.8 TWh.

Quotes of the Week

“If we continue like this, definitely we consider it is place where you can make money – if you choose the place and way to make money in the appropriate manner,” Total Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said of the oil and gas industry at the company’s Investor’s Day in London on Monday. Total said it has raised its forecast for production growth between 2011 and 2015 to 3% per year.

“I’m convinced the third LNG train is Russia’s chance to stake a claim for itself in the world LNG market,” Guy Outen, Royal Dutch Shell’s executive vice present for new business and LNG, said at the Sakhalin Oil and Gas 2012 conference in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Tuesday. He argued that a third train should be added to the Sakhalin 2 LNG plant.

“Abandoning nuclear power not only means that we must buy more fossil fuels, but also that our price-negotiating power will be greatly affected, thus causing an outflow of national wealth,” Akihiro Sawa, a professor at the 21st Century Public Policy Institute in Japan, told Interfax this week. Japan’s leading business lobby is firmly opposed to the government’s policy to phase out nuclear power.

Week in Numbers

Scraping the barrel

1 million b/d: Colombian production target for 2012.

950,000 b/d: Colombia’s current daily production.

1%: Production lost to insurgent activity this year.

Source: Ecopetrol, Interfax

A fourth Gorgon?

16.3 mtpa: Capacity of North West Shelf LNG plant, Australia’s largest.

15.6 mtpa: Capacity of Australia’s Gorgon LNG plant.

20.8 mtpa: Capacity of Gorgon if fourth train is added.

Source: Chevron, Interfax

French recipe

2.5%: French major Total’s previous production growth forecast until 2015.

3%: New forecast released this week.

>3%: Forecast after 2015.

Source: Total