Swiss-based EGL AG, an energy trading group that has its own power-production assets, will addLiquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to its business portfolio as LNG deliveries were already contracted byEGL AG on an ex-ship basis. The LNG will be sold in Spain by EGL AG’s wholly-owned subsidiary EGL España to final downstream customers.
The first LNG ship will unload during the last quarter of this year as per the LNG supply contract it concluded recently, marking EGL’s debut in the LNG business. EGL España received permission on 19 September 2007 from Spanish government authorities to market natural gas to final customers, as well as trade gas throughout Spain.
LNG deliveries will serve as a suitable complementary component to ensure diversification of supply sources to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project that’s being developed by EGL, as well as to enhance gas supply security and diversification to its final customers within the company’s target markets in Southern Europe. EGL has therefore started talks with several LNG producers and suppliers to contract additional quantities LNG supplies in the mid- and long-term.
EGL intends to sell the already-contracted LNG in Spain starting in the last quarter of this year, through EGL España. Downstream LNG sales will focus on co-generation plants as well as on industrial customers, thus offering a product that suits the needs of such clients.
In addition, EGL España is undergoing a permit-awarding process to develop a gas-fired power plant in La Zarza. With this further step, EGL is expanding its presence in European natural gas
markets, where it already is an active player in the natural gas business in several countries in continental Europe, including Italy, its main market, where it operates a 760 Megawatt gas-combined cycle power plant near Naples and is building another two gas-fired power plants.