PTT to decide on 3rd gas-receiving terminal this year
National oil and gas company PTT will finalise this year where it will establish its third liquefied natural gas-receiving terminal as part of its policy to ensure national energy security.
Pailin Chuchottaworn, president and chief executive officer, said last week that the Phase-3 proposal was already approved by the board and would be forwarded to the Energy Ministry and the National Energy Policy Council for further consideration.
The new terminal will have annual capacity of 5 million tonnes. The first LNG-receiving terminal with the same capacity is operating at Rayong’s Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate. The second terminal with a similar capacity is under construction in Map Ta Phut with completion set for 2017.
Phase 3 would not be in the Map Ta Phut area as all LNG-receiving terminals should not be in the same place.
Thailand has been buying LNG on the spot market, but next year, PTT will start importing from Qatar.
In December 2012, PTT signed a 20-year agreement with Qatar Liquefied Gas Co to purchase 2 million tonnes of LNG per year, with the first delivery slated for January 2015.
PTT is in talks with other suppliers such as Russia and Australia for long-term LNG contracts. About 80 per cent of LNG contracts should be long term to secure a stable source.
PTT plans to launch floating storage regasification units in the south of Thailand and Myanmar to serve their rising need for natural gas to generate electricity. This is an interim solution to ensure energy security in the South, he added.
Natural gas powers 70 per cent of Thailand’s electricity generation. The country’s demand for natural gas is 4.63 billion cubic feet per day, of which 59 per cent is used to generate electricity.
Due to the country’s growing thirst for natural gas, the Cabinet in December 2005 approved the National Energy Policy Council’s resolution of 2004 allowing PTT to develop the LNG import plan as part of ensuring national energy security in the long run.
The major LNG suppliers are Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Qatar. The major importers are Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Last year, Japan imported 87.9 million tonnes of LNG, representing 37.1 per cent of the world’s LNG trade.
