Norway’s Equinor signed a 15-year agreement with U.S.-based Cheniere Marketing for 1.75 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of LNG.

Half of the delivered volumes will start in 2027, with volumes expected to reach full capacity by the end of this decade, Equinor said June 21 in a press release.

The new purchase and sale agreement (PSA) with Cheniere will double the LNG volumes Equinor will export out of Cheniere’s LNG terminals on the U.S. Gulf coast.

With this PSA, total volumes contracted by Equinor with Cheniere are now approximately 3.5 mtpa. The new volumes have been contracted on a free-on-board basis, Equinor said.

Demand for LNG in Europe and Asia is expected to continue to grow as countries transition to low carbon energy sources, according to Equinor. Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine last year has also pushed many energy importers in Europe to turn increasingly to LNG to replace lost Russian piped-gas volumes.

“Europe will need natural gas to ensure flexible energy on demand to support the build-out of more intermittent renewables, and LNG will play an important role,” Helge Haugane, Equinor’s senior vice president for gas and power, said in the release.

“In other markets, for example in Asia, demand for LNG is expected to grow as a solution to energy security as well as lower emissions,” Haugane added.

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