MIAT to evacuate Mongolians from seven countries www.news.mn

Since the coronavirus outbreak began, Mongolia has evacuated 4300 of its citizens from pandemic-hit countries. Despite difficulties, such as air crews having to go into quarantine along with the people they have flown home, the evacuation flights are to continue. MIAT, Mongolian Airlines will fly to the South Korean tomorrow (30 April) to evacuate 273 its nationals. Seoul’s Incheon International Airport has developed into a transport hub for evacuation flights in the Asia-Pacific region; tomorrow’s evacuees have gathered from seven countries. The evacuation planes will fly to Seoul again on 1 May and to Frankfurt on 2 May. The second flight to the S.Korean capital will bring back Mongolians who have been in detention centres for overstaying their visas as well as illegal workers.

Foreign residents can receive 100,000-yen handout www.nhk.or.jp

Foreign residents who are listed on the country’s Basic Resident Register as of April 27th and have carried a visa for more than three months are eligible for the 100,000 yen handout the government is providing for all residents as part of its coronavirus economic response package.
How to apply
Applications and payments will be made without human contact to prevent infections and minimize clerical work at municipal offices.

Mongolia has 425 ventilators available for COVID-19 health emergency www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. At its plenary session held last week, the parliament held a discussion on the general financing agreement for COVID-19 emergency response project between Mongolia and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Coronavirus cases in US exceed one million www.nhk.or.jp

There are now more than one million cases of the new coronavirus in the United States. The world's largest economy is considering when and how to ease lockdowns and resume economic activity.

9,890 Mongolians abroad submit requests to return home www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. So far, 9,890 Mongolian citizens have submitted their request to return to their home country to the Government and the State Emergency Commission, reports U.Enkhtuvshin, Head of the State Emergency Commission and Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia on April 28.

The LNG market is “IMPLODING” www.rt.com

While everyone is understandably watching the meltdown in the crude oil market, the global market for natural gas is also cratering.
At least 20 cargoes of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been cancelled by buyers in Asia and Europe, according to Reuters. The global pandemic and the unfolding economic crisis have slashed demand for gas worldwide. Cheniere Energy, one of the main exporters of US LNG, has seen an estimated 10 cargoes cancelled by buyers halfway around the world, Reuters said.

The price for LNG in Asia was already crashing before the pandemic, owing to a substantial increase in supply last year. Prices for LNG in Asia for June delivery have recently traded at $2/MMBtu (million British Thurmal Units), only slightly higher than Henry Hub prices in the US.

As recently as October, LNG prices in Asia traded at just under $7/MMBtu.

The problem for American gas exporters is that after factoring in the cost of liquefaction and transportation, gas breakeven prices for delivering to Asia are around $5.56/MMBtu, according to Reuters. But prices are trading at less than half of those levels.

“The financial prospects for [LNG] – once one of the globe’s hottest energy commodities – seem to be imploding before our eyes,” Clark Williams-Derry wrote in a new report for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). He noted that LNG prices in the fall of 2018 were at around $12/MMBtu.

The oil majors have made large bets on LNG in recent years. Royal Dutch Shell spent more than $50 billion to buy BG Group in 2015. The move back then was made with an eye on surging demand for natural gas. “We will now be able to shape a simpler, leaner, more competitive company, focusing on our core expertise in deep water and LNG,” Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden said after closing on the acquisition of BG Group more than four years ago.

The deal remade Shell into one of the largest traders of LNG on the planet. Several other oil majors – Total SA, ExxonMobil and Chevron, for instance – have also made massive bets on LNG.

LNG is now arguably getting hit just as hard as crude oil from the pandemic and the global slowdown. A series of high-profile investment delays or cancellations have occurred in the past month. ExxonMobil, for instance, delayed a final investment decision on a large LNG export project in Mozambique in early April.

However, the industry faced troubled economics even before the current crisis. “Companies pinned the delays on the novel coronavirus, while ignoring the fact that LNG prices were already deflating long before the worst impacts of the pandemic were being felt,” Clark Williams-Derry wrote in the IEEFA report. He wrote that what was striking was the fact that companies of varying sizes and corporate structures were cancelling decisions – speculative startups, but also state-owned giants and publicly-traded supermajors.

Delayed and cancelled cargoes could ripple back up to the upstream sector. The US natural gas industry was also facing problems heading into 2020 because of oversupply. Exports may not provide the demand pull that it once did for gas drillers. Henry Hub prices are stuck at $1.80/MMBtu.

Ironically, however, the share prices of gas drillers have rebounded in recent weeks. Pittsburgh-based EQT has seen its share price double since March, for example. There are a few reasons for this. The Federal Reserve has funneled trillions of dollars into the financial sector, which has re-inflated financial assets of all types. Investors also seem to be trying to “buy the dip.”

But industry analysts are also predicting that a huge shortfall in gas production in the Permian will boost prices by next year. Goldman Sachs says that gas will jump to $3.25/MMBtu in 2021.

For now though, the economics for LNG are pretty dismal. “The LNG industry entered today’s crisis on shaky footing. And now that the economic slowdown is in full swing, all previous LNG supply and demand projections have been rendered moot, and all crystal balls remain cloudy,” Williams-Derry concluded. “In that context, delay is a smart decision.”

This article was originally published on Oilprice.com

Record number of independents to run for parliament www.news.mn

Mongolia will hold its parliamentary election on 24 June. This year, a record 208 independent candidates have registered to run for seats in the State Great Khural, reported the National Audit Office.For example, former Finance Minister S.Bayartsogt, former MP N.Nomtoibayar and lawyer J.Erkhembaatar are nominated independently to parliament election.

Mongolia cancels Tavan Tolgoi’s $1 billion IPO plan www.mining.com

Mongolia has cancelled an executive order to fund its giant Tavan Tolgoi coal project through an international initial public offering (IPO), citing “political distortions” and the current dire state of global financial markets.

Mongolia extends suspension of int'l passenger flights until end of May www.xinhuanet.com

Mongolia's State Emergency Commission (SEC) on Tuesday decided to extend the suspension of international passenger flights till the end of May.

Government resolution on Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC partially revoked www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At its irregular meeting on April 27, the Cabinet decided to revoke clause 2 of its resolution No. 296 of 2019 on the measures to be taken in regard with the Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC.

In 2018, the National Security Council made a recommendation to the Cabinet regarding the measures to speed up the construction of Tavantolgoi-Zuunbayan and Ukhaakhudag-Gashuunsukhait railroads. The recommendation instructs that every possible effort be made to carry out basic infrastructure construction of railroads in the above-mentioned routes and the project financing be obtained through international Initial Public Offering of shares.
Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC has made profits in 2018 and 2019 and has been investing in the construction of Tavantolgoi-Zuunbayan railroad thus far.

The Cabinet issued its resolution No. 296 of 2019 to boost investment in compliance with the recommendation of the National Security Council and set a goal to carry out initial public offering on stock markets. As the National Security Council recommendation has been evidently misrepresented for political reasons, the Cabinet Secretariat on March 27, 2020 submitted a request to the National Security Council to revoke the clause 2.1 of its recommendation. However, on April 16, 2020, the National Security Council stated in an official note that there are no grounds to make changes to the recommendation.

The Cabinet at its April 27 meeting assigned relevant ministers to work attentively in light of the difficulties that may arise due to the revocation of clause 2 of the resolution No. 296.

Following measures were included in the revoked clause 2 of the Cabinet Resolution No. 296:

Clause 2. Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry D.Sumiyabazar, Minister of Finance Ch.Khurelbaatar, and the Government Agency for Policy Coordination on State Property (A,Ariunbold) are assigned to take the following measures to trade shares of the holder of the special license of Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit on international stock exchanges:

2.1. To establish subsidiaries of Erdenes-Tavantolgoi in order to efficiently raise funds from international markets in the shortest possible time in compliance with relevant laws and international standards and requirements;

2.2. To transfer special licenses held by Erdenes-Tavantolgoi, first of all, special license No, MU-011943 of the East Tsankh deposit, to the company’s subsidiary in order to increase the value of Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit in phases;

2.3. To offer up to 30 percent of the shares of Erdenes-Tavantolgoi’s subsidiary to investors on international stock exchanges; and to make arrangements so that Erdenes-Tavantolgoi owns more than 70 percent of the subsidiary’s shares;

2.4. To take measures required to efficiently carry out the initial public offering in a short period of time;.

Erdenes Tavantolgoi Mining company has been established at the Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC in charge of the initial public offering plans and was preparing for IPO on international stock exchanges.

After the cabinet’s meeting yesterday, Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry D.Sumiyabazar clarified that parliamentary resolution and recommendation by the National Security Council enabling the stock market launch of the Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC shares are still effective and the works of the IPO launch of the company’s shares are still underway.

“The cabinet’s decision only dissolves the Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi Mining, a subsidiary of the Erdenes Tavantolgoi” added the minister. He further said that the government’s decision made yesterday is connected with current falls of commodity prices on the global stock markets due to COVID-19 pandemic and “internal conflict and involvement of politics”, which led to delay in the IPOs.

Since its establishment in 2008, the Erdenes Tavantolgoi JSC had the highest sales revenues in 2018 and 2019, with USD 1 billion last year and has provided funding for a number of large scale development projects of the country, such as Zuunbayan and Gashuunsukhait railway projects, ‘Tavan Tolgoi Fuel’ project aimed at reducing air pollution in Ulaanbaatar, and also has repaid debts of USD 350 million to Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (CHALCO).

"The successful IPO of the Erdenes Tavantolgoi will create 10,000 jobs and will help fund railway projects to continue further.” said Minister Sumiyabazar.

He noted that the global commodity price drops and a decrease in demand from China have caused 50 percent decline in the sales revenue of the state-owned coal mining company and a shortage of MNT 250 billion of its contribution to the state budget. “If this issue persists, the mining industry revenue could fall by 50 percent already by the end of this year. I doubt that the Erdenes Tavantolgoi will earn profits this year” said the Mining Minister.