RasGas Delivers First LNG Cargo to Italys Toscana

Doha, August 24 (QNA) - RasGas Company Limited (RasGas) has shipped its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo to the Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) Toscana, in Italy, aboard "Al Thakhira" carrier. The receiver of the said cargo is a new customer for RasGas, DufEnergy Trading SA (DufEnergy), which is an international, multi-energy trading company based in Lugano, Switzerland. Since entering the LNG market in late 2012, DufEnergy has been successfully delivering a number of LNG cargos to its customers, while diversifying its LNG supply portfolio, RasGas said in a statement Wednesday. "RasGas looks forward to continuing our support of DufEnergy in meeting the growing demand in Italy and throughout Europe for cleaner energy in the form of LNG. The arrival of our LNG cargo at FSRU Toscana represents another positive development in RasGas global operations," RasGas Chief Marketing and Shipping Officer Khalid Sultan Al Kuwari said. For his part, Head of LNG at DufEnergy Jean-Christian Heintz said, "Receiving this cargo at the FSRU Toscana regasification terminal is an important milestone, as LNG is a key source of supply to the Italian natural gas market". FSRU Toscana is one of Italys main regasification projects, and is located 22km off the Italian coast between Livorno and Pisa. The terminal is permanently anchored to the seabed through a mooring system, with a single point of rotation at the bow. This shipment to a new customer at a new terminal underlines RasGas positive growth path, and continues the companys outstanding performance even in a period of low energy prices. RasGas is one the world's largest gas exporters, with an integrated shipping fleet consisting of 27 long-term chartered LNG vessels. The fleets variety of 14 conventional ships, 12 Q-Flex and one Q-Max vessel enhances the company's flexibility to meet worldwide demand for cleaner energy. RasGas is a Qatari joint stock company established in 2001 by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil RasGas Inc. It acts as the operating company for and on behalf of the owners of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects RL, RL (II) and RL3 (Project Owners). With operations facilities based in Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar, the company's principal activities are to extract, process, liquefy, store and export LNG and its derivatives from Qatars North Field. RasGas, on behalf of the Project Owners, exports to countries across Asia, Europe and the Americas with a total LNG production capacity of approximately 37 million tones per annum. RasGas currently operates the Ras Laffan Helium Plant which was established in 2003 and came on stream in 2005. The plant extracts, purifies and liquefies helium from the North Field. The second helium plant entered production in June 2013 bringing the total liquid helium production capacity to 1.96 Bscf per year. (QNA)