Marking CMS Energy’s continued emphasis on the liquefied naturalgas (LNG) market, CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (CMS-MST)announced agreements to buy six LNG cargoes for delivery to the CMSTrunkline LNG facility in Lake Charles, LA, last week. Terms of thetransactions were not disclosed.

“LNG has been a successful part of our business,” said TamelaPallas, president of CMS-MST. “These agreements bring a total of 16cargoes that MST has contracted for delivery in 2000 and 2001. Thecompany continues to actively seek additional long-term andshort-term LNG opportunities.”

The intensification of LNG importing has been a priority of CMSever since it bought the Trunkline system from Duke Energy inNovember of 1998. CMS imported more than 25 LNG shipments into theLake Charles facility in 1999. By comparison, only 17 totalshipments were delivered in 1998.

In this latest deal, CMS-MST signed an agreement to purchasefour LNG cargoes from the North West Shelf LNG Venture in Australiafor delivery to the Trunkline LNG terminal in late April, June,September and November. In addition, CMS-MST also has purchased twocargoes from Gas Natural in Spain for delivery in March. Thesecargoes were loaded in Trinidad. One cargo is equal to 2.9 Bcf ofgas.

CMS’ focus on LNG is part of the reason many people in theindustry believe LNG imports are going to have a growing impact onthe overall gas supply picture. Earlier this month, the investmentfirm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. Inc. said it expects LNGto rise from 1% of the total U.S. gas supply to 3% by 2002. Thefirm said the current high prices in natural gas combined with theabundant LNG supply found in Trinidad “should promote the use ofLNG as an everyday supply source rather than strictly a peakingfuel.”

The firm also noted that two more LNG facilities will bereactivating in the near future. Both Columbia’s Cove Point plantand Sonat’s Elba Island plant are undergoing the process ofreactivating. Once open, LNG shippers will have double the numberof importing terminals to select from.

CMS-MST is the energy marketing business of CMS Energy Corp. Itmarkets annually 470 Bcf, 14 MMWh, 23 million barrels of crude oiland more than six million barrels of natural gas liquids.

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