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Australia mulls extending gas

security mechanism

POLICY AUSTRALIA’S government has proposed domestic supply in times of a supply shortfall,”
extending a gas security mechanism until 2030 King said.
that would enable it to restrict LNG exports if The minister is set to hold top-level meetings
there is an insufficient supply of gas at home. with Australia’s leading gas suppliers, and the
Announcing the move, Australian Resources government may also renegotiate the previous-
Minister Madeleine King said the Australian ly-agreed heads of agreements with East Coast
Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) LNG producers.
was an important tool that the government could Australia’s gas industry association APPEA
use to ensure the country’s energy security. Aus- said it would work constructively with the gov-
tralia is in the grip of an energy crisis, caused by ernment on the extension to the mechanism.
soaring demand as a result of colder weather, and “Australia needs to be conscious of the signal
outages at coal-fired power plants. any consultation sends to our longstanding trade
The mechanism was first introduced in Aus- and investment partners who have invested in
tralia in 2017, and had been due to expire at the the Australian economy because of our invest-
end of this year. Under it, Australia Pacific LNG, ment stability and purchase our gas at great
Queensland Curtis LNG and Gladstone LNG benefit to the Australian people,” APPEA acting
have all agreed to keep Australia’s East Coast gas CEO Damian Dwyer said.
market supplied if necessary. Dwyer said it was critical that any policy
“We are opening public consultations on changes in response to recent problems in the
extending the ADGSM to January 1, 2030, to East Coast energy market recognised the issues
ensure the government continues to have access with coal plant outages and the intermittency of
to the emergency mechanism to reserve gas for renewables.™
Offloading begins at PTT’s Nong

Fab LNG import terminal

TERMINALSS CONTRACTOR Saipem said last week that off- as Thailand faces rising power demand, helping
loading of the first LNG cargo had begun earlier to provide the country with “stable and reliable”
in June at PTT LNG’s Nong Fab import terminal energy supply. However, days before Saipem’s
in Thailand’s Rayong Province. announcement, it was reported that Thailand’s
Saipem and CTCI had jointly taken on the state-owned gas importers had been curbing
$925mn engineering, procurement and con- imports of LNG from the spot market because
struction (EPC) contract for the terminal, prices were too high and availability was limited.
starting work in mid-2018. The plant includes This could backfire, though, with traders
two LNG storage tanks, each with a capacity of warning Bloomberg that if LNG imports are cut,
250,000 cubic metres, and a regasification facil- Thailand could struggle to meet the deficit using
ity that can process 7.5mn tonnes per year (tpy) other sources. And LNG volumes shipped under
of LNG. Saipem noted in its statement that the long-term contracts would still be shielded from
project was the largest ever executed in Thailand recent volatility on the spot market.
in terms of tank capacity and also included the Nong Fab will be Thailand’s second LNG
largest trestle in the LNG industry globally. import terminal after state-owned PTT’s Map
Vessel-tracking data show that the commis- Ta Phut facility, also in Rayong. Indeed, the two
sioning cargo for the Nong Fab facility had come facilities will be adjacent to each other. Map Ta
from Qatar. Full commissioning and start-up of Phut has a regasification capacity of 11.5mn
the Nong Fab terminal are due to take place later tpy.™
this year.
Saipem expects this to provide a timely boost

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 27 08•July•2022