Page 13 - Downstream Monitor - MEA Week 35

DMEA terminaLs & shiPPinG DMEA
QP books out Zeebrugge capacity until 2044
miDDLe east
STATE-OwNED Qatar Petroleum this week booked the entire regasification capacity at Bel- gium’s Zeebrugge LNG terminal until 2044 as the company seeks to increase export capacity. The firm is planning to ramp up LNG produc- tion from 77mn tonnes per year at present to 110mn tpy by 2024.
The long-term deal was signed with local gas transport firm Fluxys Belgium for the supply of LNG to the facility. At present, around 50% of the terminal’s capacity is used for Qatari LNG. Fluxy affiliate Fluxys LNG is the operator of the Zeebrugge facility.
A signing ceremony was held in Brussels on September 2, attended by Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs and president and CEO of QP, and Pascal De Buck, CEO and chairman of Fluxys Belgium. Also in attendance was Marie-Christine Marghem, the Belgian Federal Minister of Energy, Environ- ment and Sustainable Development.
In a speech, Al-Kaabi said that Europe was “a key gas market” for QP “as part of our supply destination portfolio diversification strategy”.
He added: “we continue to be committed to supporting the EU’s energy policies and provid- ing reliable energy supplies into Europe.”
The Zeebrugge terminal has four LNG stor- age tanks with a capacity of 380,000 cubic metres, with a fifth, which will add 180,000 cubic metres, under construction. The terminal has a through- put capacity of 9 billion cubic metres per year.
In April, QP launched a tender for the con- struction of the LNG carrier (LNGC) fleet required for its massive North Field Expansion
(NFE) project. The tender could more than dou- ble Nakilat’s fleet, which already owns the world’s largest number of LNG vessels.
“The invitation foresees initial delivery of 60 LNG carriers, with the potential to exceed 100 new carriers over the next 10 years,” QP said in an April 22 statement.
The tender for the expanded LNGC fleet also covers shipping requirements from the Golden Pass LNG export project in the US, which will be purchased and offtaken by Ocean LNG, a 70:30 joint venture between QP and ExxonMobil.
“with this significant step, [QP] embarks on another major LNG ship-building campaign,” said Al-Kaabi.
Qatargas will execute the newbuilding pro- gramme on behalf of QP. Qatargas already operates 69 LNG carriers, via Nakilat, with 25 wholly owned vessels and 44 owned through joint ventures.
The NFE project was launched in July 2017 and expanded in scope in September 2018, to feed four – rather than the initially proposed three – new 7.8mn tpy LNG trains at Ras Laf- fan. The aim is to preserve Qatar’s position as the world’s leading supplier of LNG, in the face of intensifying global competition from Australia and elsewhere.
The expansion project will allow Qatar to achieve its production goal and follows the lift- ing of a moratorium at the North Field in early 2017, after a 12-year ban on development activ- ity. This was imposed in order to allow Doha to assess the condition of the North Field’s reser- voirs, which it shares with Iran.™
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