Swiss-based energy trading group EGL has announced that it will add liquefied natural gas to its business portfolio. The gas will be sold in Spain by EGL's wholly owned subsidiary EGL Espana to final downstream customers.
The first liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship will unload during the last quarter of 2007 as per the LNG supply contract it concluded recently, marking EGL’s debut in the LNG business.
LNG deliveries will serve as a suitable complementary component to ensure diversification of supply sources to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project being developed by EGL, as well as to enhance gas supply security and diversification to its final customers within the company’s target markets in southern Europe. EGL has therefore started talks with several LNG producers and suppliers to contract additional quantities LNG supplies in the mid and long term.
Downstream LNG sales will focus on co-generation plants, as well as on industrial customers, thus offering a product that suits the needs of such clients.
In addition, EGL Espana is undergoing a permit-awarding process to develop a gas-fired power plant in La Zarza. With this further step, EGL is expanding its presence in European natural gas markets, where it already is an active player in the natural gas business in several countries in continental Europe, including Italy, its main market, where it operates a 760MW gas-combined cycle power plant near Naples and is building another two gas-fired power plants.