ExxonMobil Partners Up for a New LNG Receiving Terminal in the UK

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (Irving Texas) has partnered with Qatar Petroleum (Doha Qatar) to construct a new LNG receiving and regasification terminal near Milford Haven Wales in the UK (PEC 78000305). ExxonMobil will own a minority 30 percent interest with Qatar Petroleum holding the ownership balance.

The proposed 400 million Euro facility to be located at South Hook will have an initial capacity to receive 6.2 million tons per year of LNG from ocean going tankers over an expected 25-year project life. The South Hook project is just the end facility in the entire value chain that the consortium is planning. The LNG for the terminal will be sourced form a planned dual-train liquefaction facility the partners will construct in Ras Laffan Qatar and will be transported on some seventeen new LNG tankers being planned. The resource base that the entire intergraded project will be founded is Qatar's giant North Field with proven gas reserves in the neighborhood of 900 Tcf. The development plan for the South Hook terminal is conceptualized to take place in two phases, in which each phase will coincide with the completion of each of the planned liquefaction trains. The first phase could be completed as soon as late 2007 or early 2008 and the second would follow by approximately two years.

The partners have completed the front-end engineering design for the terminal and are presently reviewing final feasibility and will select an E+P+C contractor within three to six months upon a positive review. Construction on the project could begin in late 2004. The South Hook project will supplement the United Kingdom's indigenous gas supplies, which are expected to decline below projected demand in the near future.