Continuing to look for new ways to bring liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the United States, Statoil said last week that it signed a three-year agreement for about 35.3 Bcf/year of LNG from Algerian state oil company Sonatrach. Statoil will begin delivering the LNG to Dominion’s Cove Point LNG terminal in Maryland this month.

Statoil said the Sonatrach agreement covers about 40% of the capacity available to Statoil at Cove Point, and supplements a similar deal concluded with Tractebel in September.

In September, Norway-based Statoil raised its stake in the U.S. LNG marketplace, setting up an agreement for Tractebel LNG North America to deliver 35.3 Bcf/year of LNG from 2003 to 2006 to Statoil Natural Gas LLC at Cove Point (see NGI, Sept. 15).

Statoil already has a project in the works to supply up to 84.8 Bcf of gas a year from its Snoehvit gas field in the Barents Sea between 2006 and 2023 to domestic markets through the Cove Point terminal (see NGI, Sept. 8). However, until that gas is flowing, Statoil said it would buy LNG from other producers to supply the Cove Point facility, where it has leased one-third of the capacity.

Otto Granli, Statoil’s vice president for LNG marketing and shipping said the Sonatrach deal “helps to underpin our strategy of maintaining a continued commitment to the LNG market.”

Cove Point’s capacity is shared on an equal basis between Statoil, BP and Shell. Owned by Dominion Resources, the terminal reopened in mid-August after being mothballed since 1980.

Established as the group’s U.S. gas marketing and trading arm, Statoil Natural Gas LLC is based with Statoil’s other American operations at Stamford, CT.

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