Saudi Aramco and Sempra LNG signed an Interim Project Participation Agreement (IPPA) on 6 January for their planned 11mn t/y LNG export terminal at Port Arthur in the US. The IPPA appears to serve no purpose other than to demonstrate the two firms’ continued commitment to the project.

Aramco and Sempra had previously signed a heads of agreement (HOA) in May 2019 which “anticipates the negotiation and finalization of a definitive 20-year liquefied natural gas sale-and-purchase agreement (SPA) for five million tons per annum of LNG offtake from Phase-1” of the project. Critically the HOA also covered Aramco taking a 25% stake in the project (MEES, 24 May 2019). (CONTINUED - 307 WORDS)