Yemen Starts Talks With GDF, Total to Hike LNG Export Price

Yemen initiated talks with GDF Suez and Total for hike in the price of LNG that the French firms buy from the Middle Eastern nation, state owned Saba News Agency reported Friday.

On Thursday, Oil and Minerals Minister, Hussein Al-Kaf, met with Jean-Marie Dauger, Executive Vice-President, in charge of the Global Gas & LNG at GDF Suez, in Paris and discussed improving the LNG price from next year.

Saba reported a meeting with similar agenda was held in Paris on Friday between Al-Kaf and Philippe Scott, deputy chairman of Total.

Yemen has been asking for a higher price for the LNG that it supplies to buyers. Yemen LNG, the country’s largest-ever industrial project, signed 20-year sales agreements in 2005 with Kogas, GDF Suez and Total, which the Yemeni government has since complained undervalue the gas and deprive it of much needed public funds.

After long negotiations, earlier this year, Kogas agreed to pay a higher price of $14 per million Btu for the LNG it buys from Yemen. The Korean firm imports two million metric tons of gas per year from Yemen.