Royal Dutch Shell PLC announced plans for one of its subsidiaries to buy Cove Energy PLC for $1.81 billion in a transaction marking Shell’s entry into Mozambique and Kenya. Shell said the acquisition would provide major LNG project potential from recent gas discoveries offshore Mozambique.

A unit of GDF Suez is studying feasibility of a floating LNG regasification terminal offshore southeastern India for Andhra Pradesh Gas Distribution Corp. Ltd. (APGDC).

Chevron Corp. has signed a nonbinding heads of agreement with Japan’s Chubu Electric Power Co. Inc. for the supply of 1 million tonnes/year of LNG from the Wheatstone project in Western Australia.

Canada’s federal government has approved a 20-year license to BC LNG Export Cooperative to export LNG from Kitimat, BC. This action follows a similar approval by Canada’s National Energy Board in February (OGJ Online, Feb. 3, 2012).

PT Nusantara Regas expects to start up by May 1 Indonesia’s first floating regasification vessel, the Regas Satu FSRU, for the West Java FSRU project (OGJ, Apr. 2, 2012, p. 122). The Regas Satu floating storage and regasification unit set sail this week from the Jurong shipyard in Singapore, heading for Jakarta Bay.

Newton Energy Capital Ltd. has completed its first coalbed methane exploratory test well on the Kutai West CBM PSC area in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, said CBM Asia Development Corp., Vancouver, BC, which has an 18% interest in the PSC.

Petronas unit Petronas Gas Bhd. let a front-end engineering and design services contract for an LNG regasification terminal in Malaysia to Fluor Corp.

Niko Resources Ltd., Calgary, is starting a multibasin exploratory drilling campaign in Indonesia as the company gained participation in its 21^st block in Indonesia.

Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp., through its unit Pacific Stratus Energy Colombia Corp., has signed a natural gas/LNG liquefaction, regasification, storage, and loading services agreement with Belgium-based Exmar NV, the company reported.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd.’s $15 billion (Aus.) Pluto LNG project in Western Australia will come on stream in early April as gas has started to flow into the first 4.3 million tonne/year capacity LNG processing train.

Japan’s Inpex Oil & Gas Australia has acquired a 17.5% stake in Shell Development Australia’s Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) project in Browse basin permit WA-44-L offshore Western Australia for an undisclosed cash sum.

Complejo GNL del Este, a consortium of Dominican and Colombian energy companies, has awarded a contract for an LNG terminal and jetty in San Pedro de Marcoris in the Dominican Republic to a subsidiary of Foster Wheeler AG’s global engineering and construction group.