LNG

Eni is present in all phases of the LNG business: liquefaction, shipping, re-gasification and sale through operated activities or interests in joint ventures and associates. The LNG business registered a good profitability, leveraging on the growing energy demand in Asia and South America.

In the next years Eni intends to increase sales in premium markets, redirecting the availability through portfolio optimization and an higher integration with the upstream segment.

Eni’s main assets and projects in the LNG business are described below.

Qatar

Through its subsidiary Eni Gas & Power nv/sa, Eni increased its development opportunities in the LNG business with access to new supply sources mainly from Qatar, under a 20-year agreement with RasGas (owned by Qatar Petroleum with a 70% interest and ExxonMobil with a 30% interest) and the Zeebrugge LNG terminal on the Western coast of Belgium.

Pascagoula

This project is part of an upstream development project related to the construction of an LNG plant in Angola designed to produce 5.2 mmtonnes of LNG (approximately 7.3 bcm/y) destined to the North American market in order to monetize part of the Company’s gas reserves. As part of the downstream leg of the project, Eni signed a 20 year contract with Gulf LNG to buy 5.8 bcm/y of the re-gasification capacity of the plant near Pascagoula in Mississippi. The start-up of the re-gasification facility commenced in the fourth quarter of 2012.

At the same time Eni USA Gas Marketing Llc entered a 20-year contract for the purchase of approximately 0.9 bcm/y of re-gasified gas downstream the terminal owned by Angola Supply Services, a company whose partners also own Angola LNG. Due to the negative prospects for marketing in the USA, Eni, through its subsidiary and the other shareholders have drafted a new development plan for the contract that minimizes the supplies to the US market and directs them to other more profitable opions.