Planned GDF Suez' Cameroon Refinery To Produce 3.5Mln Tons LNG Yearly-Official

YAOUNDE, Cameroon -(Dow Jones)- The planned liquefied natural gas plant which French energy firm GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR) plans to build in Cameroon is projected to produce an estimated 3.5 million tons of LNG per year, a senior official of the African nation's National Hydrocarbons Corporation, or SNH, told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.
The GDF Suez plans to build an onshore LNG processing plant in Cameroon's Atlantic coastal town of Kribi, located some 300 kilometers southwest of Yaounde beginning 2011.
The chief executive officer of GDF Global LNG Philippe Olivier held talks on the project with Cameroon's President Paul Biya last October, after which he announced that his company will be investing $5 billion for the project.
"GDF Suez is expecting to produce an estimated 3.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas from the refinery by the time they start production in 2014," said an official of the SNH involved in the project.
The state-run SNH, which manages and markets Cameroon's oil and gas, is working in close collaboration with the French firm and temporarily hosts its Cameroon office.
"This gas will be sold in Cameroon and the international markets," added then official, who preferred to speak anonymously.
-By Emmanuel Tumanjong, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; +237-9655-6261 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +237-9655-6261      end_of_the_skype_highlighting; tnuel@yahoo.com