Royal Vopak nv said Tuesday Gate Terminal, a strategic partnership between Nederlandse Gasunie and Vopak, has signed a long term throughput agreement with E.ON Ruhrgas AG (E.ON Ruhrgas) from Germany, one of Europe's leading energy companies.
E.ON Ruhrgas has committed itself to an annual throughput of 3 billion cubic meters (bcm) of regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). It is the fourth energy company to use Gate terminal as an entry point for the supply of LNG to the Northwest European market. Together with the previously signed agreements with DONG Energy, EconGas and Essent, a total annual throughput of 12 bcm will be accommodated by Gate terminal as of the second half of 2011, when the terminal is expected to be fully operational.
As part of the agreement E.ON Ruhrgas will acquire a 5% equity stake in Gate terminal, the first LNG import terminal under construction in the Netherlands.
With the supply of LNG by E.ON Ruhrgas, the total capacity of 540,000 cubic meters of the 3 envisaged tanks has been fully contracted. To accommodate the additional incoming LNG carriers, Gate terminal will build a second jetty and install the required additional equipment. Based on the current financing structure Gate will finance these new terminal facilities by raising additional external financing within the coming months. Gate will ask the banks under the project financing arrangements announced on July 21 to incorporate the requirements in their credit facilities. Further expansion to 4 storage tanks is possible. This would bring the total annual throughput capacity to 16 bcm.