YEMEN LNG LOADING WEEKLY CARGOES SINCE OCTOBER START

ALGERIA, April 26 (Saba)- The Yemen LNG facility is currently averaging around a cargo a week, having delivered some 20 cargoes since the startup of its first train in October last year, an official with Technip, one of the company's responsible for its construction, has said.

"The first five months of production have been very stable, very reliable with especially no shutdown so the port is exceptionally safe and reliable," Technip project director Bruno De Lesquen.

French Technip was awarded, along with Japan's JGC and the US' KBR, was awarded the major lump sum turnkey contract for the construction of the US$4.5 million Yemen LNG facility in September 2005.

The project is the largest ever carried out in Yemen and the first LNG facility in the country. It is located at Balhaf on the southern coast of Yemen, about 140 km west of the port city of Mukalla and 380 km east of Aden.

"We consider it as a proven success, the success for Yemen which is now a country that is part of the LNG exporter club, a success for the Yemen LNG company who has been able to manage a complete gas dimension from the field to the LNG delivery to the final customers and for the contractors who have been able to deliver a safe and reliable product plant the targets," de Lesquen said.

The Yemen LNG plant consists of two trains, the second started April 2, each with a capacity of 3.34 million mt/yr and a total guaranteed capacity of 6.7 million mt/yr, all of which is guaranteed delivery under three 20-year, take-or-pay LNG sales and purchase agreements.

It is slated to supply 2 million mt/year to South Korea's Kogas, 2.55 million mt/year to French Total and 2.15 million mt/year to French utility GDF Suez.

The company expects to supply around 100 shipments annually, with the European buyers expected to deliver some of the cargoes to the expanded Zeebrugge terminal in Belgium and to the US.

The project is underpinned by 9.15 Tcf of proven reserves in the Marib area, with 1 Tcf allocated for use in the domestic market.

Total leads the project with a 39.62% share. Other partners are the US' Hunt Oil (17.22%); the Yemen Gas Co. (16.73%); South Korea's SK Energy (9.55%), Kogas (6%) and Hyundai Corp. (5.88%); and Yemen's General Authority for Social Security and Pensions (5%).