The Netherlands: First Commercial Cargo at Gate LNG Expected in September

The Netherlands’ Gate LNG terminal is expected to receive its first commercial cargo in September, market sources told ICIS Heren on Tuesday.

The cargo will be delivered from Qatar on a Q-Max tanker to Germany-based utility RWE, which controls 25% of the terminal’s 12 billion cubic metre/year capacity, ICIS Heren understands.

RWE is believed to have to acquired the cargo at a premium of around $2.00 (€1.40)/MMBtu over the September ’11 NBP contract, which would represent a final delivered price of around €24.80/MWh, based on Monday’s NBP close.

The cargo will be the second Q-Max vessel to be delivered to the terminal, coming on the back of the third and final commissioning cargo supplied by Bank of America Merrill Lynch late last month. It will, however, be Gate’s first commercial cargo, although RWE is understood to have brought in the vessel in part to meet a requirement to maintain the German company’s minimum send-out rate at the facility.

The capacity-holders, which include Germany’s E.ON Ruhrgas, Denmark’s DONG Energy and Austria’s EconGas, need to import approximately two conventional-sized cargoes every three months to meet the minimum flow requirement. The Gate consortium announced in June 2010 it would install an additional high-pressure compression facility to reduce the terminal’s minimum send-out to around 30,000 cubic metres (m³)/hour (or 0.72m³/day).

Gate is a joint venture between Dutch state gas company Gasunie and terminal operator Vopak, owning a combined 80% share, with E.ON Ruhrgas, DONG, EconGas and RWE holding 5% each.

(icis)

[mappress]

Source: icis, August 3, 2011; Image: nakilat