LNG tank: Statoil and Gazprom sign US LNG supply deals.
Statoil and Gazprom in US LNG pact
Norway's Statoil and Russian monopoly Gazprom signed initial deals to import LNG to the US and trade energy there.
In a joint statement today, the companies said the deals include Gazprom gaining regasification capacity at the Cove Point, Maryland, LNG receiving terminal.
Statoil will also sell natural gas to Gazprom at various US locations, while purchasing LNG from the Russian company at Cove Point.
"The regasification agreements... will provide a firm foundation for our long term LNG supply strategy," said John Hattenberger, President of Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA, a downstream arm of the Russian gas giant that signed the deal.
"Our gas purchase agreement enables us to strengthen our North American marketing and trading operation, which we launched on 1 October, and provides us with gas supplies in areas of strategic importance," he said in a Reuters report.
Gazprom will receive access to 50 million cubic feet per day of regasification capacity at the Cove Point terminal starting in next year.
In addition, Gazprom will receive long-term access 2 billion cubic metres per year of Cove Point capacity for 18 to 20 years.
The agreements include the release to Gazprom of take-away Cove Point expansion pipeline capacity.
The deal also calls for Gazprom to purchase 1 Bcm per year of natural gas from Statoil at various trading hubs in the United States for "more than five years".
Under a separate 20-year agreement, Statoil will purchase 2 Bcm per year of LNG from Gazprom for delivery in international waters to Statoil for regasification at Cove Point, an important terminal for gas imports to the US east coast.
"The agreement is an important step in Statoil's efforts to ensure supply for our LNG-import and regas capacity at Cove Point," Irene Rummelhoff, Statoil's senior vice president for International Gas Development, said.
"It further underlines our ability to develop our gas business in the United States where we, over a relatively short time, have built a position in upstream conventional production, shale gas and the LNG-import terminal Cove Point."
She said the deal, which both parties aimed to finalise during the first quarter of next year, was an "important broadening of the successful" relations between Gazprom and Statoil.
Statoil has a 24% stake in the development company for Gazprom's giant Shtokman field in the Barents Sea.