HOUSTON (Reuters) -Cheniere Energy has entered into a long-term agreement with Norway's Equinor to supply 1.75 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of liquefied natural gas (LNG), it said on Wednesday.
The contract will help build commercial momentum for the proposed Sabine Pass LNG expansion, which will add 20 MTPA when completed, Cheniere said. It is the second contract for the expansion, after a deal with Korea Southern Power (KOSPO).
In May, KOSPO agreed to purchase approximately 0.4 MTPA of LNG on a delivered ex-ship (DES) basis from 2027 through 2046, with a smaller annual quantity to be delivered starting in 2024.
Half of Equinor's contract deliveries would begin in 2027 and the other half by the end of this decade, after a final investment decision for the Sabine Pass project is achieved, the company said.
The supply agreement is for 15 years, starting from the first delivery of total contract volume.
The firms had signed an LNG supply deal last year, and the new agreement doubles the volume of LNG that Equinor will export from Cheniere's LNG terminals on the U.S. Gulf Coast, the Norwegian firm said.
"Equinor has an ambition to strengthen its role as a leading supplier of natural gas and with our supply agreements with Cheniere we are expanding our global position," said Helge Haugane, Equinor's senior vice president for Gas and Power.
The United States has emerged as the world's largest LNG exporter after Western sanctions on major supplier Russia left Europe scrambling to find alternate sources for the commodity.