Total and GSPC land spot LNG cargoes
French major Total has landed another ‘commissioning’ LNG cargo at the Hazira LNG terminal in Gujarat where it is a junior partner with Shell.
PETROWATCH learns Total brought in a 145,138-cubic metre spot cargo at Hazira on February 3. This cargo consisted of LNG used to commission a 7.8m t/y LNG ‘train’ at the Qatar Gas-4 liquefaction facility.
Major LNG markets like Japan, South Korea and the US typically shy away from buying such ‘commissioning’ LNG cargoes, but in India such is the hunger for R-LNG that they are eagerly snapped up at good prices. Still, future LNG produced from Qatar Gas-4 is likely to only go to the US, China and Dubai, not to India.
Total’s cargo arrived at Hazira aboard Q-flex LNG tanker Al Bahiya, which has a 210,000-cubic metre capacity and is owned by Qatari shipping company Nakilat. Al Bahiya is working for Qatar Gas on a long-term contract and was built by Daewoo and delivered to Nakilat on January 30 last year.
It flies the Marshall Islands flag and usually transports LNG from Qatar to North America, China or Dubai. “But this is the first time it has ever landed in India,” we hear.
Nearly 60% of the Al Bahiya cargo will be sold by Total to Reliance, while the rest will go to Essar. Meanwhile, GSPC has landed its first spot LNG cargo imported from the US at Petronet-LNG’s Dahej LNG terminal.
This report learns GSPC landed the 135,138-cubic metre spot cargo at Dahej on February 5, imported under a deal signed in January with Texas-based Excelerate Gas Marketing. This cargo, loaded at Freeport on the Texas Gulf Coast, arrived at Dahej aboard 138,000-cubic meter capacity LNG tanker Excellence, flying the Luxembourg flag.
After unloading, Excellence left Dahej on February 6.