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Construction kicks off on Longkou LNG import plant
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
CHINA’S National Petroleum and Natural Gas Pipeline Network Group (PipeChina) said on May 16 that it had broken ground on an LNG import terminal that is being built in the city of Longkou in Yantai, Shandong Province. State- owned PipeChina is building the facility in part- nership with Nanshan Group.
The first phase of the plant is due to enter service in 2023, and will have a capacity of 5mn tonnes per year. The terminal will be expanded, and will ultimately have the capacity to process 20mn tpy of LNG. It is designed to comprise 20 gas storage tanks, each with a capacity of 220,000 cubic metres, by the time it has been fully expanded.
According to PipeChina, this will translate into 28bn cubic metres per year of gas that will be supplied by the terminal to regions around the Bohai Sea. The company says that as well as providing a continuous gas supply, it expects the facility to help enhance peak shaving capacity and offer emergency storage. The project is expected to cost around $5bn in total to develop, and is anticipated to help Shandong Province cut its carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions by 32mn tpy.
This is the first energy infrastructure project
the company has participated in building since its launch in December 2019. Pipeline assets operated by China’s three national oil compa- nies (NOCs) – China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and Sinopec – were combined into PipeChina that month. The move was aimed at improving efficiency and guaranteeing sup- plies. Indeed, the Longkou terminal was previ- ously being developed by CNOOC before being handed over to PipeChina.
Looking ahead, PipeChina is expected to par- ticipate in more new projects, alongside the ones it inherited from the NOCs.
“The [coronavirus] COVID-19 pandemic might delay work on PipeChina’s new projects, but in the second half of 2020, PipeChina will likelybuildmoreprojects,”thedeanoftheChina Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, Lin Boqiang, was quoted by the Global Times as saying.
Additional liquefaction capacity is being developed elsewhere in Yantai.
Thailand’s Gulf Energy wins LNG import licences
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
THAILAND’S Gulf Energy has been granted licences to import up to 1.7mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG. The company – Thailand’s top private power producer by capacity – is the sec- ond firm in the country to be granted an import licence after state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT).
Gulf issued two separate statements on the licences on May 21. According to the first, the Thai Energy Regulatory Commission has approved Gulf ’s request for a shipper licence covering 300,000 tpy of LNG. The second said that Hin Kong Power Holding, in which Gulf owns a 49% stake, had been awarded a licence for 1.4mn tpy. The remaining 51% stake in Hin Kong is held by another Thai firm, Ratch Group.
The volumes covered by Gulf ’s own licence will be used to supply 19 small power projects, Gulf said. Gas delivered under the Hin Kong licence, meanwhile, will be used to fuel a yet-to- be-built 1,400-MW power plant.
The announcement comes after the Bangkok Post reported last week that Gulf was betting on Thailand opening up LNG trading to the pri- vate sector this year. However, the decision had been delayed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Previously PTT had been Thailand’s sole supplier of gas and importer of LNG, while EGAT only received its first cargo at the start of this year, as the country set about liberalising its gas market.
Gulf expects its future LNG imports to help lower the costs of the super-chilled fuel and energy prices for industrial users. This comes as Thailand targets an increase in the proportion of gas in its power generation mix, aiming for gas sources to account for 53% of its total generation capacity of 77 GW by 2037.
As well as the power plant that Hin Kong will develop in Ratchaburi Province, Gulf has plans to build a 6,000-MW LNG-powered plant in Vietnam’s Ninh Thuan Province.
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