Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18 -- Qatar’s state-owned Qatargas Operating Co. Ltd. boosted its exports of LNG to China by signing supply agreements with China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC) and PetroChina International Co. Ltd.
The agreements were announced at the official opening of Qatargas’ representative office in Beijing, which was attended by Abdullah Al-Attiyah, Qatar's deputy prime minister as well as minister of energy and industry, and Qatargas Chief Executive Officer Faisal M. Al Suwaidi.
Qatargas signed a memorandum of understanding with CNOOC for long-term supplies of LNG to China in addition to amounts already agreed by the two sides.
Under terms of the MOU, Qatargas intends to supply a further 3 million tonnes/year of LNG to CNOOC commencing in 2013. In addition to the base volume, Qatargas and CNOOC said they will “contemplate the sale and purchase of an additional 2 million tpy of LNG.”
These volumes combined with an existing long-term supply commitment of 2 million tpy of LNG agreed under a 2008 sales agreement will potentially take the total volume of the Qatari LNG to be supplied to CNOOC to 7 million tpy.
According to analyst IHS Global Insight, “CNOOC, the largest offshore oil and gas developer of China's national oil companies, is planning a significant expansion of LNG import and storage capacity, which Qatar with its huge liquefaction projects can help to fill.”
In addition to the agreement with CNOOC, Qatargas also signed an MOU with PetroChina, a 100% subsidiary of the Chinese National Petroleum Corp., for the supply of 2 million tpy of LNG to China.
Besides the 3 million tpy already to be supplied from Qatargas to PetroChina, the new MOU will increase the total amount of LNG deliveries to 5 million tpy.
Qatargas said the initial supply of 3 million tonnes of LNG is expected to commence with the start-up of Qatargas 4’s Train 7, while the additional 2 million tonnes of LNG under the new MOU is expected to start in “the first half of the next decade.”
In October, CNOOC received its first cargo of LNG from Qatar, 216,000 cu m of gas at the Dapeng LNG terminal in Shenzhen under the long-term supply agreement signed between CNOOC and Qatargas last June (OGJ Online, Oct. 20, 2009).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
Rendering from Cedar LNG.
EIA.
