Norwegian oil and gas group StatoilHydro said it has signed a short-term deal with Qatar's RasGas on deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to its Cove Point terminal in the United States.

'The number of LNG cargoes actually delivered to Statoil at Cove Point will depend on such factors as the competitiveness of U.S. gas prices,' spokeswoman Rannveig Stangeland said.

'The deal confirms the attractiveness of Cove Point, which is located close to interesting gas markets.' She declined to give further details about the deal with RasGas.

The deal has been struck at a time the LNG market has been hit by the global recession just as a raft of new production projects are expected to come onstream.

Spot demand in the large importers Japan and South Korea has dropped significantly and cargoes earmarked for these places when construction of the production projects began are now seeking other buyers, hence RasGas is selling some LNG in spot deals to StatoilHydro, analysts say.

Steve Johnson, President of Waterborne Energy consultants in Houston, said: 'The Qataris don't want to get caught long in what they see is this impending long market. It's incredibly indicative of what we see coming.

'They are shoring up all of their loose production. If gas prices plummet this year you don't want to be caught with an unsold tanker. If the Qataris are acknowledging that they have a lot of length, then the market is truly up for a wave.'

StatoilHydro already exports LNG to Cove Point, Maryland, from its Arctic production plant Snoehvit, in northern Norway.-Reuters