Page 6 - MEOG Week 07 2023

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Oman LNG signs supply

deal with China’s Unipec

OMAN STATE-OWNED Oman LNG has reached an November, the company reached agreement on
agreement to supply China’s Unipec with 1mn a 27-year supply deal with QatarEnergy for 4mn
tonnes per year (tpy) of liquefied natural gas tpy of LNG.
(LNG) for a four-year period beginning in 2025, The historic deal is the longest such agree-
state news agency ONA revealed on February 8. ment signed to date.
The deal marks the first agreement between China’s LNG imports are forecast for a mod-
Oman and a Chinese firm. Unipec is the trading est rebound in 2023 to at least 70mn tonnes after
arm of China’s largest refiner Sinopec. dropping by 20% year on year in 2022 to 64.4mn
Oman LNG has had a busy start to 2023, tonnes. It marked the largest annual decline for
having also reached deals to supply France’s the country since it began importing LNG in
TotalEnergies and Thailand’s PTT Global LNG 2006.
Company with 0.8mn tpy of LNG. The slide in imports was largely due to strict
The company also signed a contract with Covid lockdowns combined with a rise in the
Shell International Trading Middle East FZE for use of natural gas from domestic production and
the offtake of 0.8mn tpy of LNG as well. As Shell’s pipeline sources.
first long-term offtake agreement from Oman, While Beijing’s decision in December to scrap
the deal once again marked a new business part- its zero-Covid policy has indicated signs of an
nership for the Gulf country. improved economic outlook, struggling real
Meanwhile, for Sinopec the deal highlights estate and weakening exports have tempered the
growing ties with Gulf LNG providers. In projected rebound on LNG imports for 2023.™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 15•February•2023