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A long term deal has been agreed between Qatar Petroleum and electric utility company Fluxys Belgium, for an LNG services agreement for the Zeebrugge LNG terminal on the north coast of Belgium.

In a statement released by Fluxys Belgium shortly after the deal was made, according to the agreement, Qatar Petroleum signed to unloading slots at the facility until the expiry of the current  contract, and then up to 2044.

Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs and President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum had this to say on the deal:

“Qatar Petroleum has long invested in and anchored LNG receiving terminal capacity in Europe, a key LNG market, as part of our supply destination portfolio diversification strategy. We continue to be committed to supporting the EU’s energy policies and to providing reliable energy supplies into Europe.”

Head of Fluxy Belgium, Pascal De Buck was said to be thrilled to be extending their long-term cooperation with Qatar, commenting:

“This agreement further extends our long-standing cooperation with Qatari partners, secures long-term activity at the Zeebrugge terminal and further strengthens the facility’s position as a versatile LNG gateway into Europe offering customers optimum destination flexibility. Ample pipe gas takes away capacity from the terminal is readily available for delivery throughout North-West Europe as well as a range of options for downstream small-scale LNG distribution.”

The new long-term LNG services agreement is the outcome of a subscription window held from 30^th April to 24^th May  Fluxys Belgium added, for services at the Zeebrugge LNG terminal till 2023, the expiry of the current long-term unloading contracts deal.

Unloading slots were offered to the market alongside additional storage services during the subscription window. The Belgian Federal Commission for Electricity and Gas Regulation (CREG) agreed the LNG services proposal in late June 2019, paving the way to complete the deal of a long-term LNG services agreement.

The Zeebrugge LNG terminal in Belgium currently possesses 380,000m³ of LNG storage capacity across four tanks, with an annual capacity of 9 billion m³  of natural gas. A fifth storage tank spanning 180,000 is currently under construction.