Trinidad to sign Atlantic LNG restructuring agreement next month
Oct 12 (Reuters) - An agreement to restructure Trinidad and Tobago's flagship liquefied natural gas (LNG) project will be signed by its owners in London next month, the Caribbean country's Prime Minister Keith Rowley said on Thursday.
The deal is expected to simplify the ownership structure of the Atlantic LNG project, with Shell and BP soon to hold 45% each and Trinidad's state-run National Gas Company (NGC) holding the remaining 10%, said people familiar with the matter.
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Under the revamp, which has taken years of negotiation, NGC will expand its ownership by taking shares in all four of the facility's liquefaction trains. Currently NGC holds shares in just two.
Chinese Investment Co, which owns about 10% in train one, will no longer hold an active stake.
The Trinidad and Tobago government has said this arrangement will allow it to earn more revenue from LNG exports, while simplifying the project's structure.
The restructuring could help increase processing by allowing gas from non-shareholders to feed the LNG facility and encouraging the restart by 2027 of one of the project's liquefaction trains, which was idled in recent years due to lack of gas supply.
Trinidad and Tobago has the capacity to process 4.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas into LNG, petrochemicals and power, but its current gas production is only 2.7 bcfd.
The country expects offshore gas producers, particularly Shell, to increase gas output and supply for producing LNG in the coming years. The government is also negotiating with Venezuela to import Venezuelan gas from at least two fields near the maritime border between the two nations.
(Reporting by Curtis Williams, writing by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Rod Nickel)