China Plans New Private LNG Terminal

Private Chinese gas and wind energy player Suntien Green Energy has revealed plans to build a $3.6bn LNG import terminal in northern China.

The company said in a statement on October 31 it had secured approval from Beijing’s National Development and Reform Commission for the investment, which is also backed by Hebei provincial government.

The plant in Tangshan will be capable of bringing ashore 5mn mt/yr of LNG by the end of 2022, according to Reuters, under a first phase costing yuan 8bn ($1.2bn). A second stage will bring output to 12mn mt/yr, with overall project costs reaching yuan 25.4bn ($3.6bn), Suntien said.

The terminal will help diversify Hebei’s gas sources and expand maximum winter supply to the region, the company said.

China is the world’s second biggest LNG importer and is poised to replace Japan as the top buyer within a few years. The country received 43.39mn mt of LNG in the first nine months of 2019, up 17.4% yr/yr as a result of Beijing’s ongoing push to replace coal with gas in power generation and heating.

Only a handful of companies operate LNG import terminals in China, with the lion’s share of capacity controlled by state oil and gas firms. Several private players have also stepped into the sector in recent years, however.