Singapore has completed 30 per cent of its first liquefied natural gas import facility and is on track to open in the second quarter of 2013, according to the chief executive of the company operating the terminal, Bloomberg reports.
State-owned Singapore LNG Corp will operate two storage tanks with 180,000 cubic metres of fuel capacity each and a third facility will be added in 2014, Neil McGregor, chief executive of Singapore LNG Corp, said in an interview at a conference in Singapore yesterday.
BG Group plc, the biggest supplier of LNG from the Atlantic Basin to Asia, won a 20-year contract to provide the fuel to the import terminal, located on the south-western part of Jurong Island.
After meeting BG's import needs of three million tonnes a year, the third storage tank will give an option to store fuel for other traders or to sell it, Mr McGregor said, declining to comment if Singapore LNG would become a trader in addition to being a service provider.
'We can ramp up capacity of the terminal to six million tonnes,' he said, without giving a date for the expansion. Japan's need for fossil fuels because of the shutdown of nuclear reactors following the March 11 earthquake should support 'short-to-medium term demand' for LNG, he said.
Spot and short-term contract supplies typically account for 20 per cent of the 240 million tonne global market, Mr McGregor said. Potential Japanese purchases of an additional eight million tonnes a year may 'tighten' immediate supplies, he said.
BG will supply more than two million tonnes a year of LNG to local utilities and may boost sales further as power plants switch to gas, according to Mr McGregor. Samsung C&T Corp is building the terminal, the Energy Market Authority of Singapore said in February.
State-owned Singapore LNG Corp will operate two storage tanks with 180,000 cubic metres of fuel capacity each and a third facility will be added in 2014, Neil McGregor, chief executive of Singapore LNG Corp, said in an interview at a conference in Singapore yesterday.
BG Group plc, the biggest supplier of LNG from the Atlantic Basin to Asia, won a 20-year contract to provide the fuel to the import terminal, located on the south-western part of Jurong Island.
After meeting BG's import needs of three million tonnes a year, the third storage tank will give an option to store fuel for other traders or to sell it, Mr McGregor said, declining to comment if Singapore LNG would become a trader in addition to being a service provider.
'We can ramp up capacity of the terminal to six million tonnes,' he said, without giving a date for the expansion. Japan's need for fossil fuels because of the shutdown of nuclear reactors following the March 11 earthquake should support 'short-to-medium term demand' for LNG, he said.
Spot and short-term contract supplies typically account for 20 per cent of the 240 million tonne global market, Mr McGregor said. Potential Japanese purchases of an additional eight million tonnes a year may 'tighten' immediate supplies, he said.
BG will supply more than two million tonnes a year of LNG to local utilities and may boost sales further as power plants switch to gas, according to Mr McGregor. Samsung C&T Corp is building the terminal, the Energy Market Authority of Singapore said in February.