OREANDA-NEWS. January 21, 2015. The 3.5mn t/yr Zhuhai LNG import terminal in southern China has received a rare cargo from Equatorial Guinea.

The cargo, which loaded at the 3.7mn t/yr EGLNG export plant in early December, was delivered on 4 January from the 170,000m? Hoegh Gallant. The tanker has been chartered until mid-January by UK firm BG.

The Zhuhai terminal, which is operated by China's state-owned CNOOC, last received a cargo in October on the 260,000m? Al Samriya from Qatar, its only delivery of the second half of the year. The terminal was commissioned in October 2013 and has since received infrequent deliveries from Qatar, Oman, Malaysia, Norway and Equatorial Guinea.

This was the first cargo carried by the Hoegh Gallant. The tanker is expected to begin operations as a floating storages and regasification unit (FSRU) in Egypt by the end of the first quarter. Owner Hoegh LNG finalised a five-year contract with Egypt's state-owned Egas in November. The FSRU has 5.2bn m?/yr regasification capacity, which is around 3.65mn t/yr of LNG. Egas finalised a deal last month with Algeria's Sonatrach for the delivery of six cargoes between April and September, and has a preliminary agreement with Russia's state-controlled Gazprom for seven LNG cargoes.

Hoegh said it will seek interim employment for the Hoegh Gallant, which was delivered from a South Korea shipyard in early November. Once the charter with BG has expired, there could be enough time for a further spot charter before delivery to Egypt at the end of March. The vessel was anchored near Shanghai.