CMS Corp.’s marketing division, CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (MST), completed an agreement Tuesday to purchase a total of 9.3 Bcf of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the North West Shelf LNG project in Australia for delivery to the CMS Trunkline LNG facility in Lake Charles, LA. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The announcement marks the second major deal CMS has struck to take advantage of its purchase of Eastern Panhandle Pipeline and Trunkline Gas Co. from Duke Energy last year.

The shipments from North West Shelf’s liquefaction facilities located at Withnell Bay in the port of Dampier, Australia, are scheduled to load in May, July, September and November this year, and will arrive at CMS Trunkline LNG Company’s Lake Charles, LA regasification facility approximately 30 days later. CMS-MST said it will continue to actively seek additional long-term and short-term LNG opportunities.

“This transaction is another step in the CMS strategy to create value from its acquisition of the Panhandle Eastern Pipeline Company, Trunkline Gas Company and Trunkline LNG Company,” said CMS Energy President Victor J. Fryling.

CMS Energy previously announced construction of a 710 megawatt natural gas-fueled power generating facility in Dearborn, Michigan, which will be able to utilize natural gas transportation capacity on the Panhandle Eastern Pipeline (See Daily GPI, Nov. 6, 1998).

“I think the Dearborn plant and this LNG deal are the two most highly visible examples of the synergy created from our acquisition of Panhandle and Trunkline,” said Kelly Farr, a CMS spokesman. The purchases were announced last November and the deal closed in late March.

CMS-MST has annual operating revenue of more than $1.2 billion, with 7,000 industrial and commercial customers throughout the eastern and central United States and Canada. It markets annually about 370Bcf, seven million MWh of electricity, and 1.2 million barrels of LNG.

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