Gérard Mestrallet, Chairman and CEO of French energy company and European LNG player, GDF SUEZ, reinforced his company’s commitment to China and to the Asia-Pacific region today by signing a cooperation agreement with CNOOC.
GDF SUEZ and CNOOC Gas & Power Group Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC, announced the signature of a cooperation agreement to work closely on CNOOC’s planned LNG floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) projects in China. In connection with this medium-term agreement, starting around 2013, GDF SUEZ will provide CNOOC a shuttle and regasification vessel (SRV), the “GDF SUEZ Cape Ann,” that will be permanently moored for use by CNOOC as a floating storage and regasification unit.
In October 2010, GDF SUEZ and CNOOC, the largest importer of LNG in China, had already signed a medium-term agreement under which GDF SUEZ will sell CNOOC about 2.6 million tons of LNG starting in 2013 for a 4-year period.
GDF SUEZ charters two SRVs, the GDF SUEZ Cape Ann and the GDF SUEZ Neptune, delivered in 2009 and 2010. Each vessel has a capacity of 145,000 m3 of LNG with a maximum send-out capacity of 21million m3 of natural gas a day.
GDF SUEZ is the 3rd largest LNG importer in the world, with a fleet of 17 LNG carriers and a significant presence in regasification terminals in North and South America, Europe and India. GDF SUEZ considers Asia to be a core development region for its LNG business, with strong growth prospects and new supply potential. The Group will contribute to the development of this market by developing Bonaparte LNG, a 2 MTPA floating LNG project in Australia.
This follows the recent signing of a cooperation framework agreement with Beijin Gas Group which covers several fields of cooperation such as natural gas, LNG or energy services.
Gérard Mestrallet, Chairman and CEO of GDF SUEZ said:
“We are very pleased to hold the first steering committee meeting of our partnership with CIC that is opening strong growth prospects for all businesses in the Group. After the signing of an agreement with Beijing Gas, we are also very pleased to develop our cooperation with CNOOC, one of the energy leaders in Asia, with whom we have already signed a medium term LNG supply agreement last year. These events show our strategic commitment to China and to the Asia-Pacific region.”
GDF SUEZ is Europe’s leading gas player and is involved across the entire spectrum of the LNG value chain from exploration and production, gas supply, transport, storage, as well as marketing and distribution.