Page 10 - NorthAmOil Week 45 2021

NorthAmOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES NorthAmOil

US LNG producers agree to send

more supply to Chinese buyers

US-CHINA LEADING US LNG producer Cheniere Energy struck supply deals with China’s Sinopec. How-
has struck a deal to supply the super-chilled fuel ever, its announcements showed that the agree-
to China’s Sinochem Group on a long-term basis. ments involved higher volumes than previously
The supply agreement is the latest in a series reported.
announced between US LNG producers and In letters Venture Global had sent to the US
Chinese buyers as demand for LNG grows. Department of Energy (DoE) that were disclosed
Under the sale and purchase agreement in October, it showed that Sinopec had agreed to
(SPA), Sinochem has committed to buying buy 4mn tpy of LNG over a 20-year period from
roughly 900,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG the proposed Plaquemines LNG project. Addi- Another US
initially, starting in July 2022. Over time this will tionally, the letters showed that Sinopec’s trading
be ramped up to 1.8mn tpy, with the agreement arm, Unipec, had agreed to buy 1mn tpy over a LNG producer,
covering a period of 17.5 years in total. The pur- three-year period from the Calcasieu Pass LNG
chase price for LNG under the SPA is indexed terminal, which Venture Global is close to bring- Venture Global
to the Henry Hub gas price, plus a fixed lique- ing into service.
faction fee, Cheniere noted, and Sinochem will However, according to Venture Global’s LNG, confirmed
buy the volumes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. announcement last week, Unipec had agreed to recent reports
The deal comes after Cheniere signed a sep- buy 3.5mn tpy of LNG – 2.5mn tpy more than
arate SPA with commodity trader Glencore in previously reported. A separate announcement that it had struck
late October. In a statement last week, Cheniere’s from Sinopec put the figure even higher, at
president and CEO, Jack Fusco, talked up the 3.8mn tpy. supply deals with
company’s “commercial momentum”. He said No explanation has been provided as yet for
the deal also highlighted the strength of the LNG the differences in volumes in the announce- China’s Sinopec.
market and global calls to invest in additional ments, or for the staggered disclosures.
liquefaction capacity, including Cheniere’s Stage Venture Global’s CEO, Michael Sabel, also
3 expansion at the Corpus Christi LNG terminal. told Bloomberg last week that his company was
The company is targeting a final investment “very close” to producing its first LNG at Cal-
decision (FID) on Corpus Christi Stage 3 next casieu Pass, on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. He
year. anticipates that the volumes from the Plaque-
News of the latest Cheniere deal came as mines terminal will be fully sold by mid-2022,
another US LNG producer, Venture Global with construction on the facility also kicking off
LNG, confirmed recent reports that it had next year.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 11•November•2021