QATAR - The Other LNG Buyers.

Apart from Kogas' commitment to purchase 4.8m t/y from mid-1999, RasGas on July 31, 1999 signed with Petronet LNG of India a 25-year SPA for the supply of 5m t/y of LNG to the planned Dahej receiving and regasification terminal, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, and another 2.5m t/y to a Cochin terminal, in southern Indian state of Kerala. Deliveries to both terminals are to start from mid-2003. It was later agreed that, in return for a Petronet stake in RasGas, the latter would have equity in Petronet. On Aug. 5, 1999, RasGas and the Dakshin Bharat Energy Consortium signed a 20-year SPA for 2.6m t/y to be supplied from mid-2003 to a 1,886 MW power plant in Tamil Nadu, with a terminal to be built nearby. Edison Gas of Italy on June 24, 2001 signed a 25-year SPA for 3.5m t/y from 2005. Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC) of Taiwan on Oct.22, 2000, and RasGas signed heads of a 25-year SPA for 1.8m t/y with supply to start in late 2003.

These SPAs require two additional RasGas trains at Ras Laffan, with each to have a 4.4m t/y capacity, by mid-2003 and 2005. The RasGas-II JV agreement, with QP holding 70% and ExxonMobil having 30%, was ratified on March 26, 2001, by the Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa.