Angola LNG Inks 3rd Sales Deal in a Month

Angola LNG has signed its third LNG sales agreement this month, this time to commodity trader and mining group Glencore.

Under this latest multi-year sales agreement, announced September 20, Angola LNG will deliver cargoes to Glencore at destinations around the world. 

It follows similar agreements announced by Angola LNG, with Germany's RWE Supply & Trading September 11, and with trader Vitol September 4.

Angola LNG's first term agreement was with EDF Trading, signed March 2016 for a duration from 2016-18, was also for deliveries ex ship (DES). But, unlike that contract, no duration or volume has been specified in the three contracts signed this month. All four agreements are believed to be flexible.

Angola LNG opened in mid-2013, having cost $10bn to develop. In early 2014 Brazil's state-run Petrobras was reportedly in talks to offtake from the venture. However it had to shut for two years for essential, protracted repairs. Angola LNG loaded its first cargo after that extended outage in June 2016. 

Shareholders of Angola LNG are state Sonangol 22.8%, Chevron 36.4%, with BP, Eni and Total each holding 13.6% equity; the facility has capacity to export 5.2mn metric tons/yr. In contrast Angola LNG Marketing, which negotiates and manages LNG sales, is 50%-owned by Sonangol.

Mark Smedley