In Freight News 26/03/2015
Singapore imported more LNG than any other Southeast Asian nation last year, according to figures published by BG Group. Imports amounted to 1.91 mtpa compared with 0.9 mtpa the previous year.
Malaysia was the second-biggest importer, with volumes amounting to 1.76 mtpa, narrowly beating Indonesia’s total of 1.74 mtpa, while imports to Thailand were considerably less at 1.33 mtpa.
BG was appointed aggregator for the first 3 mtpa of the Singapore LNG (SLNG) terminal’s capacity in early 2013 and virtually all of the cargoes that arrived there came from export plants in BG’s portfolio.
The expansion of the terminal’s capacity to 6 mtpa in early 2014 opened up the opportunity for supplies from other companies, but the extra capacity has yet to be allocated.
The majority of cargoes in 2014 came from Equatorial Guinea, where BG has an offtake agreement for 3.4 mtpa from the plant on Bioko Island. Trinidad and Tobago was the next-biggest supplier – BG holds contracts for around 4 mtpa from the 15.2 mtpa Atlantic LNG plant.
Two cargoes bought from the spot market were delivered from Belgium in July and September. BG’s figures reveal the company increased its spot purchases threefold between 2013 and 2014. BG’s Egyptian plant shut down in September because of a lack of feed gas, meaning the company received just one cargo from the plant in 2014 compared with 25 the year before.
January 2015 saw SLNG receive the inaugural cargo from Queensland Curtis LNG plant. It was the first time SLNG had received a cargo from Australia and the country will likely become a major supply source as production ramps up in the coming months.
SLNG launched a storage and reload service last year to establish itself as a trading hub for LNG. The first cargo to make use of this service arrived in July 2014 from Indonesia. It was reloaded in January 2015 and delivered to South Korea.
