Page 11 - GLNG Week 40

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

Vietnamese LNG projects

move forward

The Vietnamese city of Haiphong has approved two LNG-to-power

projects that are estimated to cost a combined $7bn

PROJECTS & AUTHORITIES representing the Vietnamese indicative of the financial heft of the partners
COMPANIES port city of Haiphong have approved an LNG building the terminal, securing long-term buy-
import terminal that has been proposed by ers remains important.
ExxonMobil to serve as part of a $5.1bn gas-to- Indeed, an ExxonMobil executive said in
WHAT: power project. On the same day, the Haiphong late 2019 that there was potential for such deals
The Vietnamese city People’s Committee also approved another tied to Golden Pass to be firmed up. And if the
of Haiphong has LNG-to-power project that is estimated to cost super-major is building both export and import
approved two LNG-to- $1.9bn. capacity in different countries, these facilities
power projects that The ExxonMobil project would begin gener- would seem an obvious match in terms of one
are estimated to cost a ating power by 2026-27, with an initial capacity selling LNG to the other. As well as the Haiphong
combined $7bn. of 2.25 GW that would be expanded to 4.5 GW project, ExxonMobil is also considering devel-
by 2029-30. The associated LNG terminal would oping a 3-GW LNG-to-power facility in Long
WHY: have the capacity to import 6mn tonnes per year An Province.
Vietnam is ramping up (tpy) of LNG. The developer of the other project that was
LNG imports to use as The Vietnamese government said earlier approved last week in Haiphong has not been
feedstock for new power this year that LNG for the project could be identified. However, the Haiphong committee
generation capacity. imported from the US. ExxonMobil is cur- said the project would have a capacity of 1.6 GW,
rently converting the Golden Pass LNG import and that its first phase would be operational from
WHAT NEXT: terminal on the US Gulf Coast to liquefaction 2025. The entire project is then due to be in ser-
A number of further in partnership with Qatar Petroleum (QP). vice from 2028.
Vietnamese LNG import Unlike other Gulf Coast LNG terminals, the
plans are at various Golden Pass export facility was sanctioned Import push
stages of development. without any long-term offtake contracts to The approvals come as a growing number of
underpin it being publicised – though it is pos- Asian countries are building new LNG import
sible that some had still been signed without capacity in order to meet rising demand for nat-
details being made public. While the apparent ural gas and lessen their dependence on more
lack of offtake agreements has been seen as polluting fuel, such as coal. Indeed, the Institute

Week 40 09•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P11