GDF sign significant agreements with Chinese partners for an LNG carrier charter, gas storage and regasification facilities.
An agreement with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) schedules the sub-chartering of the GDF SUEZ Cape Ann LNG carrier from October 2013 for a period of up to five years and a FSRU will be permanently moored in Tianjin and will become the first floating LNG import terminal in China. This delivery follows the signing in 2011 of a cooperation agreement on LNG floating storage and regasification units between GDF SUEZ and CNOOC. (Tianjin is located around hundred kilometers from Beijing and the FSRU will support this region’s growth).
An initial agreement in natural gas storage
The technical service agreement signed with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) schedules the assessment of six projects to convert depleted fields into underground natural gas storage facilities, which its subsidiary PetroChina plans to fill with gas in 2013. The total storage volume would be 10 billion cubic meters (bcm), the equivalent of GDF SUEZ’s entire storage capacity in France today.
GDF GULF SUES say that China's gas market is in fact growing at a very fast pace due to the country's growth and transition towards a greener economy, specifically with the desire of using natural gas instead of coal as much as possible. This market could double within five years.