RasGas Taps into All Liquid Markets in NW Europe

Doha, April 21 (QNA) - RasGas Company Limited (RasGas) just delivered its first commercial liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo to GATE (Gas Access Terminal Europe) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This short-term sale marks the Companys latest expansion into North West Europe, giving RasGas a complete and comprehensive market penetration, RasGas said in a press release today. RasGas established its presence in the European market in 2007. In addition to making regular deliveries to Zeebrugge in Belgium, RasGas has also made over 80 deliveries to the Isle of Grain and Dragon terminals in the United Kingdom (UK). In October of last year, the Company made its first delivery to South Hook terminal in the UK thereby accessing all three major LNG regasification terminals in the UK. "As Europe continues to work towards meeting CO2 emission targets, we are seeing more interest in LNG as a cleaner fuel. RasGas expanding reach in the European market allows for even higher flexibility in delivering LNG to the regions liquid trading points," said Khalid Sultan R. Al-Kuwari, Chief Marketing and Shipping Officer at RasGas. "This delivery to GATE marks RasGas ability to access all three of the North West Europes liquid trading points. Additionally, GATEs capacity for carriers as large as the Q-Max boosts RasGas flexibility in meeting the demands of the European market," he added. RasGas integrated shipping fleet consists of 27 long term chartered LNG vessels. The fleets variety of 14 conventional ships, 12 Q-Flex tankers and one Q-Max vessel enhances RasGas' flexibility to meet global demand. The Companys first cargo to GATE arrived aboard Al Khuwair, a Q-flex ship carrying 3,200,000 MMBTU of LNG. RasGas Company Limited (RasGas) is a Qatari joint stock company established in 2001 by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil RasGas Inc. RasGas 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, RasGas 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 tonnes per annum. (QNA)