NEWS
Gaz de France receives first Egyptian cargo
Paris, July 25 (LNG journal)
- Gaz de France, which plans to become a major liquefied natural gas player in Europe and the United States, received its first cargo from Egypt on July 22 under a long-term supply agreement.
GDF said the cargo arrived at the company's import terminal at Montoir-de-Bretagne on France 's Atlantic coast on board the tanker, Edouard LD, that had left the Egyptian port of Idku , near the city of Alexandria , on July 14. The arrival ceremony was presided over by the French group's chairman and chief executive, Jean-François Cirelli.
GDF signed a 20-year supply agreement with Egypt three years ago to buy 4.8 billion cubic metres of gas annually, representing the entire output of unit 1 of the Idku facility built and operated by Egyptian LNG. The Egyptian company is a joint venture owned by British Gas, the Malaysian company Petronas, the Egyptian companies EGPC and EGAS, and Gaz de France.
GDF said it also plans to ship Egyptian LNG to its planned new terminal at Fos Cavaou near Marseilles , on the Mediterranean coast. The Fos Cavaou project is scheduled to be commissioned in 2007.
A spokesman for GDF said the company will use its fleet of nine LNG tankers to carry all its Egyptian LNG cargoes, and will also ensure deliveries to other European ports, in Spain in particular, as well as North America . Regular deliveries of Egyptian LNG will only begin in November, however, at the average rate of 60 cargoes per year, or one cargo delivered every six days.
"This new commercial relationship (with Egyptian LNG) allows GDF to acquire a greater flexibility in managing its supplies and offers trading opportunities for the group in the entire Atlantic Basin ," GDF said.
GDF said it was currently the world's fifth-largest buyer of LNG. In 2004, LNG accounted for 16.4 percent of the company's natural gas supplies and with the start of supply chains in Egypt and Norway , this figure was expected to rise to 30 percent in 2007.
