Switzerland-based energy trader MET Group has set up an office in Singapore as it works to expand its liquefied natural gas (LNG) business beyond Europe.
The firm led by Benjamin Lakatos said that MET Asia, a unit owned 90 percent by MET and 10 percent by Keppel, will expand the company’s business reach to the region, focusing on making the group’s LNG portfolio truly global and expanding its asset base in the Asia-Pacific.
MET will develop its Asian business activities in cooperation with Singapore-based Keppel, a 10 percent owner of MET.
The two companies recently established a JV company, Keppel MET Renewables, to pursue renewable energy opportunities in Europe, and Keppel and MET will seek to broaden this cooperation in Asia as well, it said.
Earlier this year, MET has appointed Sandor Fasimon to head up the setup of its Asian operations.
MET said in the statement that it has named Fasimon as the CEO of MET Asia, based in Singapore.
“We expect MET Asia to be a future fuel to our growth story as well as a gateway to participate in the global commodity markets,” Lakatos said in the statement.
MET’s LNG business
MET has imported over 30 TWh of LNG cargoes in 2022 to Croatia, Greece, Spain, Belgium, and the UK.
The company has capacity rights at the Croatian FSRU-based terminal and received the first LNG cargo via the Krk facility in the northern Adriatic Sea in April 2021.
In addition, MET booked regasification capacities at the FSRU-based LNG import terminal in Germany’s Lubmin, owned by Deutsche ReGas.
The company has recently entered into a non-binding heads of agreement with US LNG terminal developer Commonwealth LNG to buy liquefied natural gas from the latter’s proposed 9.3 mtpa plant in Cameron, Louisiana.
Under the sale and purchase deal, Commonwealth will supply 1 million tonnes per annum of LNG for 20 years to MET.
MET said the terms anticipated under the non-binding HOA would begin at the start of commercial operation of the LNG export facility in 2027.