Switzerland-based energy trader MET Group has entered into a 10-year deal to buy US LNG volumes from LNG giant Shell. According to MET, the company’s primary objective is to supply its European customers with US LNG.
MET said on Tuesday the long-term free on board (FOB) deal will further diversify its LNG supply portfolio, helping to ensure security of supply for its customers across Europe, ranging from its own gas-fired power plant demand to energy-intensive industrial companies and SMEs and households.
The trader did not provide further details regarding the deal.
Prior to this contract, MET entered in September last year into a 20-year non-binding deal with US LNG terminal developer Commonwealth LNG to buy 1 mtpa of LNG from the proposed 9.3 mtpa plant in Cameron, Louisiana.
Alongside bolstering security of supply for MET’s European portfolio, this new “flexible” LNG supply enables its diversification ambitions, allowing the company to extend its geographical scope to new regions such as Asia, MET said.
Last year, MET set up an office in Singapore as it works to expand its LNG business beyond Europe.
The company has long-term regasification capacity bookings in Germany, Croatia and Spain, and has imported into eight different countries in recent years.
This includes countries around the Mediterranean (Greece, Italy, Croatia, Spain), Northwest Europe (UK, Belgium, Germany), and the Nordic region (Finland), MET said.
In 2023, MET delivered more than 30 cargoes of LNG to Europe.
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.
This FSRU is now part of the Mukran LNG import facility which includes two units.