Dong Plansto re-export LNG from Netherlands Gate Terminal
Dong Energy A/S, Denmark’s largest utility, plans to export previously imported liquefied natural gas from the Gate terminal in Rotterdam, to take advantage of the biggest price differential to Asia since 2009, Bloomberg reports.
Gate, which began accepting cargoes in September, only imports LNG from partners, including Dong, RWE Supply & Trading GmbH, EconGas OMV, Eneco Holding NV and EON Ruhrgas AG. The terminal doesn’t have technical capability to reload the fuel.
“In the future, we’ll look into opportunities to re- export” LNG from Gate, Henrik Valgma, head of portfolio management and trading, said in a June 14 interview in Copenhagen. “Our trading is based around Europe. We don’t trade the Pacific basin. We have an ambition to increase our presence in LNG around the Atlantic basin.”
Price differentials between Asia and Europe are at their widest in three years, encouraging the reloading of LNG carriers from storage tanks in Europe. Asian LNG demand rose after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011 led to the shutdown of most of the country’s atomic reactors. Japan’s LNG imports rose to a record 8.15 million metric tons in January, the nation’s Finance Ministry said yesterday.
France, Spain, and Belgium have all loaded LNG ships from storage tanks at import terminals for re-export to higher-priced markets overseas. Sixteen cargoes have been re-exported from Spain in the first five months of this year, almost double the whole of 2011, according to data from Enagas SA (ENG), Spain’s gas- network operator.
Dong has an agreement to take 1 billion cubic meters of LNG a year from Iberdrola SA (IBE), Spain’s biggest electricity supplier, Valgma said.