Yamal LNG agrees to transship up to 8 mln tonnes at Zeebrugge for delivery to Asia-Pacific
MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - Yamal Trade, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamal LNG, and Fluxys LNG have signed a 20-year contract on LNG transshipment services at Belgium's Zeebrugge terminal totaling up to 8 million tonnes a year, which will make it possible to supply LNG to the Asia-Pacific market year-round, Yamal LNG said.
With the new service on transshipment, the terminal will now provide the full spectrum of services both for major LNG volumes and smaller volumes: bunkering and filling of rail cisterns. The transshipment service provides for construction of a fifth LNG storage tank and additional processing facilities, Yamal LNG said.
A source told Interfax previously that Zeebrugge, the biggest LNG transshipment terminal in Europe and its most liquid hub, has no spare capacity and the Yamal LNG deal will require construction of a new, 180,000 cubic meter storage tank. Novatek emphasized that Fluxys would shoulder the construction costs.
During the Arctic summer, Yamal LNG will ship LNG to the Asia-Pacific market eastward on the Northern Sea Route in purpose-built Arctic class ARC7 carriers, with capacity for 170,000 cubic meters. During winter, the LNG carriers will head west to Zeebrugge, where Fluxys LNG will unload the LNG from ARC7 tankers and reload it onto conventional LNG carriers for subsequent delivery to the Asia-Pacific market via the Suez Canal.
Yamal LNG chose from among several LNG terminals in Europe, including the terminal now under construction in Dunkirk, France, (in which Edf has 65%, Fluxys - 25% and Total - 10%), which plans to merge with the Zeebrugge terminal, and Spain's El Musel terminal, owned by Enagas. That terminal, along with other terminals in Spain, does have spare capacity available.
The buyers of Yamal LNG output are Spanish Gas Natural Fenosa (2.5 million tonnes; DES - "delivered ex-ship"), Gazprom trading company Gazprom Marketing and Trading (2.9 million tonnes) and the Yamal LNG shareholders: Novatek Gas & Power (2.38 million tonnes), Total Gas & Power (up to 4 million tonnes) and China National Petroleum Corporation (3 million tonnes).
