Qatargas said on Tuesday that Qatargas 3 has entered into a new long term LNG Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Tohoku Electric of Japan.

Under the terms of the SPA, Qatargas 3 will deliver LNG to Tohoku Electric for a period of 15 years starting from 2016, building up to a plateau volume of 0.18 million tonnes per annum (MTA) from 2019 onwards. The LNG will be supplied from Qatargas 3 (Train 6), a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum, ConocoPhillips and Mitsui & Co. Ltd., which started production in January 2010, and will be delivered on board Q-Flex LNG vessels.

The agreement was signed by Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry of Qatar and Chairman of the Board of Qatargas 3 and Makoto Kaiwa, Representative Director and President of Tohoku Electric.

Tohoku Electric is one of the original eight Japanese buyers which signed contracts with the Qatargas 1 joint venture in 1994. In December 2007, Tohoku Electric became the first Japanese utility company to receive a cargo of LNG on-board a Q-Flex vessel.Following the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 which severely affected the Tohoku Region, Qatargas has supplied increased volumes of LNG to Tohoku Electric to help meet the region’s demand for stable and reliable supplies of energy.