Engie Signs Gas Supply Contract With Yamal LNG

By Inti Landauro

PARIS--Power utility Engie (GSZ.FR), formerly known as GDF Suez, Tuesday said it has signed a contract to buy one million tons of liquefied natural gas a year from Yamal LNG, a Russian gas field operated through a joint venture between Total SA (TOT) and Russia's Novatek (NVTK.MZ).

Through the contract, Engie is committed to buy the annual amount of gas for 23 years starting in 2018, the company said.

The $27-billion project to extract gas from the Yamal peninsula in the Arctic Ocean, involves processing it for export and shipping it on special ice-breakers.

The project will have a capacity of 16.5 million metric tons of LNG a year, most of which will be shipped to China to supply companies that have been aggressively seeking increased imports of LNG and piped natural gas to meet growing demand.

Engie plans to ship the gas to a terminal it operates in Montoir-de-Bretagne on the French Atlantic coast. The French utility will then deliver the gas worldwide.

Write to Inti Landauro at [e-mail]

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