09 September 2013, News Wires – Yemen is expected to sell its liquefied natural gas at global market prices next year after negotiations with its buyers, the country’s oil minister said on Sunday.
State-run newspaper al Thawra cited Yemen Oil Minister Ahmed Dares saying a deal was reached from negotiations with French companies Total and GDF Suez at the end of last year, which stipulated the sale of LNG at $7.21 per million British thermal units.
The previous price of $1.50 per mmBtu will hold until the end of 2013, the paper reported.
According to Reuters, Yemen told South Korea in August that it had to pay global market prices by the end of this year after complaining it had lost hundreds of millions of dollars of potential earnings over recent years because of the low price that state-run Kogas secured in a long-term deal with Yemen’s only gas export plant.
It was unclear from the minister’s statement to al-Thawra whether Kogas also agreed to start paying the higher price at the start of 2014, Reuters reported.
The country’s largest industrial project Yemen LNG signed a 20-year sales deal with Kogas, Total and GDF Sues in 2005. Ever since, the Yemeni government has complained that the agreement undervalued the gas and deprived the country of much needed public funds.
