OREANDA-NEWS. Qatargas Operating Company Limited (Qatargas) announced that it has sold Qatar’s first ever cargo of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Malaysia.

 The cargo was sold to Petronas LNG Ltd (Petronas) of Malaysia and was loaded on-board the LNG Vessel ‘Seri Begawan’ at Ras Laffan Port. The cargo will be delivered to Malaysia’s first LNG receiving terminal located in Melaka. The conventional sized cargo contains approximately 3.1 trillion Btu of LNG.

 His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy & Industry and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qatargas welcomed the cargo sale as "another milestone in Qatar’s standing as a reliable international energy supplier." He said "we are pleased with this development as it marks Qatargas’ entry into a new and promising LNG market, helping meet the growing demand for energy in Malaysia and building a stronger relationship with Petronas."

 "Qatari LNG continues to play a key role in supporting efforts by countries around the world to diversify their energy supplies using gas as an environmentally friendly source of energy," Dr. Al-Sada concluded.

 The cargo was supplied by Qatargas 2, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Total. Qatargas and Petronas recently concluded a Master Sales and Purchase Agreement (MSPA) to facilitate the sale of this spot cargo and future volumes.

 Qatargas sees the South East Asian LNG market as an increasingly important growing regional market where it intends to strengthen its business activities. To-date, Qatargas has commissioned LNG terminals in Thailand and Singapore through delivering the first LNG cargoes to these markets. Furthermore, Qatargas has delivered several LNG cargoes to PTT of Thailand and looks forward to the commencement of long-term supplies to Thailand in 2015.