China Unveils Plan to Build 11 New LNG Terminals in Northern Ports
China has unveiled a plan to build 11 new liquefied natural gas terminals in five ports in the north to boost their capacity to handle imports as the government steps up a push to increase domestic use of the cleaner-burning fuel to reduce air pollution.And a much wider view from LNG World Shipping, August 7:
The new LNG berths will be built at the ports of Dalian, Tangshan, Tianjin, Qingdao and Yantai, all in the Bohai Rim region of northern China, bringing the total number of LNG terminals in these cities to 16, according to the plan announced Friday by the Ministry of Transportation.
The government will also conduct studies on constructing more LNG terminals in other ports in Liaoning Province in the northeast, Hebei in the north and Shandong in the east, the ministry said.
Chinese LNG import terminal construction work continues apace
Operators of China’s LNG import terminals are working hard to provide the infrastructure required to handle the country’s burgeoning gas purchases
The Chinese Government’s decision on 3 August 2018 to impose a 25% tariff on imports of US LNG, as part of the escalating, tit-for-tat trade war between the two superpowers, will probably have only a minor impact on China’s surging LNG import volumes
China’s LNG imports in 2017 jumped 42.3% year-on-year, to 39.1M tonnes. The US provided only 1.4M tonnes of that total while Australia shipped 17.8M tonnes to China and Qatar 7.7M tonnes.
Although US LNG exports are set to increase fivefold over the next three years, from 12.2M tonnes in 2017 to around 65M tonnes in 2020, Chinese buyers have signed up for relatively little of this growing output.
Meanwhile, Novatek is ready to help meet China’s burgeoning demand for gas as it prepares to bring onstream the second and third liquefaction trains of its new Yamal LNG project in the Russian Arctic. In addition, the developers of the planned expansions of the Sakhalin 2 terminal in east Russia and the PNG LNG terminal in Papua New Guinea will be targeting Chinese buyers for much of their new LNG production.
CNOOC and the juggernaut
The Chinese LNG imports’ juggernaut continues to roll on, as the government’s programme of substituting coal with clean-burning natural gas in residential, commercial and industrial premises continues to gain ground. China’s H1 2018 LNG imports totalled 23.8M tonnes, a 50% jump on the same period a year earlier. Only Japan imports more LNG than China.
In early August 2018 China’s 20th LNG receiving terminal was commissioned. Known as Shenzhen Diefu LNG, the 4 mta facility is operated by China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) and is located in the Diefu district of Dapeng Bay, not far from CNOOC’s existing Dapeng LNG terminal.
China’s complement of receiving terminals features 15 large-scale LNG import facilities and five small-to-mid-scale coastal distribution installations.
Of the country’s 20 terminals, CNOOC operates 10, comprising nine large-scale LNG import facilities and one small-scale coastal distribution complex, the Fangchenggang distribution centre near the Vietnam border. The other CNOOC import terminals besides Shenzhen Diefu are located at Tianjin, Shanghai, Ningbo, Putian, Yuedong, Dapeng, Zhuhai and Hainan.
Of the remaining six Chinese large-scale LNG import facilities, Sinopec and PetroChina, the country’s other leading oil and gas companies, operate three each.
CNOOC reports that its nine import terminals can handle up to 33.8 mta of LNG, representing 56% of China’s receiving capacity and placing the company third among the world’s leading LNG importers.
Since Dapeng LNG, the country’s first import terminal, was commissioned in 2006, CNOOC has imported 120M tonnes of LNG. Dapeng has handled 50% of that traffic.
CNOOC has plans to further expand its LNG terminal network, with new facilities in Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces planned. In May 2018 the energy company gave the green light to a project to build its 10th major import terminal, at Longhai City near Zhangzhou in Fujian province. The 3 mta facility, with three 160,00-m3 storage tanks, is due for completion in late 2021.
Also in May 2018, CNOOC decided to augment its existing Tianjin installation in northern China by constructing six 220,000-m3 storage tanks and providing additional regasification equipment. When the project is complete in 2022, CNOOC’s Tianjin terminal will be able to process 7.25 mta of LNG, up from an expected 3.2 mta this year.
In another expansion project, announced earlier in 2018, CNOOC was given clearance to press ahead with constructing two new 200,000-m3 storage tanks and additional road tanker loading bays at its Shanghai terminal. The opportunity was grabbed and the company gave the green light to a scheme that will double the facility’s throughput capacity, from 3 to 6 mta, by 2020.
Sinopec’s solid base
Sinopec’s most well-known LNG sales and purchase contact is with Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) for 7.6 mta for 20 years from the latter’s liquefaction plant in the Australian east coast port of Gladstone. Sinopec has also signed up for 2 mta of LNG for 20 years from the PNG LNG terminal in Port Moresby on Papua New Guinea’s southern coast.
The APLNG and PNG LNG volumes dominate the cargo flows into the Sinopec import terminals at Qingdao, Tianjin and Beihai, all of which have a 3 mta LNG reception capacity. The Qingdao facility opened in December 2014, Beihai in April 2016 and Tianjin in February 2018....MUCH MORE
