NEWS
Cheniere plans to buy 200 LNG cargoes a year
Houston, Sept 7 (LNG journal)
- Cheniere Energy of the US has asked for proposals from global suppliers to buy up to 200 cargoes a year of liquefied natural gas for the North American market.
Cheniere said its “North American gateway programme” would provide suppliers with a direct platform to nominate cargoes into its receiving terminals from 2008 to 2010, starting with the Sabine Pass terminal, which is currently under construction in Louisiana .
The purchase and marketing programme would be handled by a recently formed Cheniere subsidiary, Cheniere LNG Trading & Marketing Inc, a company statement said. The unit would purchase LNG and serve as a marketer of the natural gas to a pool of North American buyers.
“It will promote Cheniere's goal of fostering the marriage between North American demand and global LNG supply,” said Keith Meyer, president of Cheniere LNG Marketing.
“It provides a new channel for LNG suppliers to access the North American market and a means for North American natural gas buyers to proactively pull abundant supplies of LNG into the domestic market to alleviate a growing supply shortfall," he added.
Meyer said he believed that over the next decade LNG would represent 20-25 percent of US natural gas supply.
Cheniere said its purchase programme would accommodate both ex-ship and FOB basis ship-by-ship sales, as well as term transactions for a period of up to three years.
Poducers and suppliers wishing to to participate were invited by Chenier to review details on its web site.
The Sabine Pass receiving terminal is being constructed in Cameron Parish, Louisiana along the Sabine-Neches Ship Channel. It will be capable of receiving vessels of up to 250,000 cubic meters and will have 2.6 billion cubic feet per day of send-out capacity in its first phase.
Cheniere said it had filed with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to expand the facility's send-out to 4 Bcf/d.
