Marathon pens LNG sales agreement for Alba gas in Equatorial Guinea

New York-listed Marathon Oil Corp has entered into a five-year LNG sales agreement with commodity trader Glencore for a portion of its equity natural gas produced from the Alba field in Equatorial Guinea, it said on October 16.

The pricing structure is linked to the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) index, less a fixed transportation fee. Marathon, which has a 64% working interest in the Alba Unit, said the sales deal is effective January 1, 2024.

Marathon also announced that it expects to redirect a portion of Alba Unit natural gas from the local methanol facility to the LNG facility in 2024. This is due to the expected arbitrage between LNG and methanol pricing.

Earlier this year, Marathon signed a heads of agreement with Equatorial Guinea and Noble Energy, a Chevron company, to progress the second and third phases of the Equatorial Guinea Regional Gas Mega Hub (GMH). Phase one of the GMH was successfully achieved with the tieback of the Alen field to Punta Europa, which delivered its first gas in February 2021.

Alen gas is processed under the combination of a tolling and profit-sharing arrangement through Alba plant's onshore LPG plant and Equatorial Guinea LNG Holding's LNG facility.