| Kippreport.com

Qatar agrees to supply LNG to Malaysia for 20 years

July 25, 2011 11:08 by Reuters

Qatargas is to sell 1.5 million tonnes an year (mtpa) of liquefied natural gas to Malaysian LNG producer Petronas from 2013-2033, Qatargas said late on Sunday.

Malaysia was the world’s second biggest exporter of LNG behind Qatar in 2009 but slipped into third place behind Indonesia in 2010 as dwindling output from ageing fields and rising demand from its power plants eroded exports.

Qatar has meanwhile raced to the top of the LNG exporter league in the last decade and can now produce up to 77 million tonnes of super-cooled gas a year, around three times the capacity of Malaysia.

“It is the first time Qatargas has signed a HOA (heads of agreement) for supplying LNG to the South East Asian market,” Qatargas CEO Khalid Bin Khalifa Al Thani said in a statement.

“We are very pleased with this achievement as it represents the first long-term agreement for supplying LNG to one of the world’s fastest growing LNG markets.”

Petronas operates a 24 mtpa LNG export complex on the sparsely populated island of Borneo, but is building a 3.8 mtpa import terminal, expected to be completed by mid 2012, to meet rapidly rising demand on the more densely populated Malaysian mainland.

Qatargas said the LNG supply deal with Petronas, which will run for at least 20 years from 2013, was equivalent to about 5 percent of Malaysia’s current annual domestic gas demand.

In another sign of new consumer markets are competing for supplies with longstanding LNG buyers users in northeast Asia and Europe, Qatargas announced a deal to supply Argentina with 5 million tonnes mtpa from 2014-2034.

Indonesia was the world’s largest exporter from 1984-2005 before being overtaken by Qatar. (Reporting by Daniel Fineren and Firouz Sedarat; editing by Jason Neely)

Tags: Malaysia, Qatar, qatar gas malaysia, qatargas