(Adds comment on China jv’s trade, background; paragraphs 3-7)
ZHOUSHAN/SINGAPORE, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Swiss-based global mining and commodities trader Glencore is set to send its first spot liquefied natural gas cargo to Zhoushan in eastern China in a trading joint venture with Zhejiang Energy Group, a top company trader said on Friday.
Glencore’s joint venture with Zhejiang, which is backed by the provincial government, dates from 2018, making it one of the few Western traders with such tie-ups in China, the world’s top crude oil buyer and second-largest importer of LNG.
Alex Sanna, Glencore’s global head of oil and gas, told an oil and gas seminar in Zhoushan that the shipment was set to arrive there “in two weeks”.
The first spot cargo purchase came after the Zhejiang firm’s natural gas group injected funds in June into the joint venture, Sanna added.
Zhoushan, which receives growing flows of super-chilled natural gas, is the site of a terminal run by private Chinese gas firm ENN Energy Holdings with annual capacity to receive 3 million tonnes.
It is China’s largest privately controlled facility of the kind.
In the year’s first half, the joint venture traded 5 million tonnes of oil and gas, an increase of more than 50% from a year earlier, Glencore’s Sanna added. (Reporting by Chen Aizhu in Singapore; Editing by Emily Chow in Zhoushan and Clarence Fernandez)
Read More: UPDATE 1-Glencore to send 1st spot LNG cargo to China’s Zhoushan in key JV