Regional LNG: Kogas agrees to take replacement cargoes from Petronas

South Korea's state-owned LNG importer Korea Gas Corporation has agreed to take three replacement LNG cargoes from Petronas' MLNG Tiga following a delay to Nov 1 in the operational start-up of Train 8 at the Tiga plant, a Kogas source was quoted by Platts of Singapore as saying on Monday.

"We have agreed to take three replacement cargoes--one in September and two in October," the source said. MLNG Tiga's Train 8 was scheduled to supply four to five LNG cargoes per month to Kogas between October 2003 and March 2004, he added.

According to a sale and purchase agreement signed between MLNG Tiga and Kogas in May this year, MLNG Tiga is to supply 2-mil mt/yr of LNG to Kogas for seven years, starting May 2003. MLNG Tiga had been supplying cargoes to Kogas from Train 7 until a fire at the plant forced it to shut operations at the train and suspend all LNG shipments. However, despite the force majeure on shipments from Train 7 and delayed start-up of Train 8, Kogas is confident it will not suffer from low inventory levels this winter, the source said. (*)