Regional LNG: Qatar's Rasgas II to sell 3 mtpa LNG to Taiwan's CPC: Report

Qatar said Tuesday it had agreed to sell around 3 million tons per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas for 25 years to Taiwan's Chinese Petroleum Corp.

Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co. II, or Rasgas II, and CPC signed a long-term sales agreement for supply starting in 2008. The company is 70% owned by state-run Qatar Petroleum and 30% by ExxonMobil Corp. of the U.S.

"The value of the agreement is confidential", Rasgas Chairman Ibrahim Ibrahim told Dow Jones Newswires.

Ras Gas II, which opened its third 4.7 MTPA LNG-processing train last year, expects to bring its fourth and fifth LNG-processing trains on stream in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

CPC's gas will initially come from the fifth train, before shifting to the seventh train, which will have a capacity of 7.8 MTPA and is expected to open in 2009-10, Ibrahim said.

Qatar, with its massive 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves in one field, wants to clinch a 30% market share of the world's LNG supply by 2012, when global output capacity is expected to be around 250 million cubic tons a year. (*)