Eric Watkins
Middle East Correspondent
NICOSIA, June 9 -- Oman LNG (OLNG) has signed an agreement with Petrodiamond Singapore, a unit of Mitsubishi Corp., for the supply of 360,000 tonnes of LNG over a 2-year period.
Nassir bin Khamis Al Jashmi, undersecretary of Oman's oil and gas ministry and chairman of OLNG, and Masatoshi Nishizawa, Mitsubishi's senior vice-president and chief operating officer of its petroleum business division, signed the agreement, which was announced Saturday.
Mitsubishi will charter the 12,680 dwt oil and chemical tanker Belisaire, owned by Bruges-based Petromarine SA, to carry 20-24 cargoes/year—about 180,000 tonnes—from OLNG's plant at Qalhat in the Wilyat of Sur.
The deal with Mitsubishi follows a June 3 agreement signed between OLNG and BP PLC for the supply of as much as 4 million tonnes of LNG over a 6-year period beginning in 2004 to BP in order to deepen the supermajor's marketing activities in Spain.
Under terms of the agreement, BP will receive as many as 12 cargoes of LNG in Europe to underpin existing supplies. OLNG will provide shipping for the duration of the agreement.
The current capacity of OLNG's existing two-train plant at Qalhat is about 6.8 tonnes/year, while a third train, which will have a production capacity of 3.3 million tonnes/year, is expected to begin production by first quarter 2006 (OGJ Online, Dec. 16, 2002).
OLNG is a consortium of the Government of Oman 51%; Royal Dutch/Shell Group 30%; Total SA 5.54%; Korea LNG 5%; Oman's Partex Oil & Gas (Holdings) Corp. 2%; and Japanese firms Mitsubishi Corp. 2.77%, Mitsui & Co. Ltd. 2.77%, and Itochu Corp. 0.92%.