Pavilion Energy is steadily building up its LNG supply portfolio, increasing by 40 per cent an earlier 10-year deal with France's Total to 0.7 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas annually, with shipments starting in 2018.

The latest revised deal, worth around US$7 billion, between the Temasek-owned LNG player and Total - a supplier which it had not named until now - will also take in several additional LNG cargoes by the latter to Pavilion before 2018.

Announcing its revised deal with Total Gas & Power Asia, Pavilion's CEO Seah Moon Ming said: "Pavilion Gas values this partnership with Total. This is an important development for Pavilion as a regional LNG player in meeting the growing energy needs in Asia. This deal with Total strengthens Pavilion Gas' LNG supply portfolio as it provides supply diversification from global LNG sources."

It adds 0.2 million tonnes per annum (tpa) to Pavilion's first long-term LNG supply agreement for 0.5 million tpa which it had earlier struck with Total in October last year, though the supplier was only described as "a European major" then.

The company again declined to give a dollar value to the deal, though a guesstimate by industry sources put the revised 0.7 million tpa of LNG supplies at around US$0.7 billion annually, or US$7 billion in total.

"Total is delighted to build a key commercial relationship with Pavilion Gas," said Philippe Sauquet, president of Total Gas and Power. "This long-term sales agreement to deliver LNG into Asia, including Singapore, reinforces our strategy to expand LNG trade in this region and thus to meet the growing energy demand of this market."

Coinciding with the Total deal, which was announced late on Wednesday, Pavilion yesterday also reported good news on the upstream LNG front.

It said its pioneer US$1.288 billion upstream investment covering a 20 per cent stake in three blocks (Block 1, 3 and 4) in Tanzania was beginning to pay off, with co-owner Ophir Energy (20 per cent) just announcing an additional one trillion cubic feet (TCF) gas find, bringing the total there to 16.7 TCF.

"This is approaching the requirement for a potential third LNG train," a Pavilion spokesman told BT. The latest discovery is at the Taachui-1 and subsequent Taachui-1ST well in Block 1. Nick Cooper, CEO of Ophir said: "The Tacchui-1 discovery continues the 100 per cent drilling success rate on Blocks 1, 3 and 4 and adds further resource to support the LNG development in Tanzania."

Commenting on the latest developments, a Pavilion spokesman said both the contracted supplies from France's Total as well as that coming from the Tanzania gas fields "provide geographical diversity for Pavilion Energy on a whole".

"The other possible supply source the company will look at next will be the US," the spokesman added, declining to give more details.