Sharjah National Oil Corp. is diversifying into the LPG marketing business, with the launch of a new blending and loading complex in the UAE, and expects to begin importing LPG to meet domestic demand, the company announced Sunday.
Previously a small exporter, SNOC will begin importing LPG for its blending plant at the Sajaa complex at the Hamriyah port on the UAE's Persian Gulf coast.
Although the plant is ready, the company did not say when it would accept its first shipment.
SNOC is owned by the government of Sharjah, one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE. It owns the 700 MMcf/d Sajaa gas plant, Sharjah's largest producing gas development, handling gas from the onshore Sajaa, Moveyeid and Kahaif gas and condensate fields.
The emirate had been exporting LPG since the 1980s, with most of its shipments bound for a single buyer in Japan. That term agreement expired at the end of 2016 and has not been renewed, leaving only spot sales. With its LPG production down to just 150 mt/d, SNOC has now even stopped spot sales.
Instead it is looking at importing around 1,500 mt/d of LPG for its new blending plant and trucking facility to meet rising domestic demand in the UAE's northern emirates. SNOC officials have previously said they would also look at re-exports, to countries that do not have refrigerated LPG facilities, such as Bangladesh.
