Global Regas Capacity Under Construction Hits 10-Year High: WoodMac
Global regasification capacity under construction is expected to hit a 10-year high at 144mn metric tons/year in 2020, Wood Mackenzie said in a note published on September 2. This includes 33 new terminals under construction, adding 92.8mn mt/yr, and a further 51.0mn mt/yr of capacity which is set to be added at existing terminals.
The world's fastest growing demand centre, China, is leading the capacity additions, accounting for over a third or 52.6mn mt/yr of total capacity including 22.4mn mt/yr at 10 new terminals, WoodMac said.
"Access to capacity in China is being shaken up, with the new national pipeline company, PipeChina, likely to take ownership of a number of national oil company-owned terminals soon. China also suffered from delays in capacity additions due to Covid-19, with expected expansion of the Caofeidian and Rudong terminals facing risks of slipping to 2021,” Wood Mackenzie research director Giles Farrer said.
India is also building five new terminals with 20mn mt/yr of total capacity. Elsewhere, Europe may see up to 13mn mt/yr of additional capacity from expansion projects until 2025 across the Netherlands, Poland, France, Greece, and UK, WoodMac said.
WoodMac expects a total of seven regasification terminals to take final investment decision (FID) this year. Three new terminals – Cyprus LNG, and China's Yantai LNG and Tianjin LNG – have already taken FID in the first half of 2020.
"We think a further four terminals have a good chance of reaching FID before the end of the year: Alexandropoulos LNG, in Eastern Greece, Hong Kong LNG, Vila do Conde terminal from Golar, located in North Brazil and Puerto Sandino, in Nicaragua," Farrer said.
A total of four new projects have started receiving cargoes in this year. These include Brazil's Sergipe LNG, India's Mundra LNG, Puerto Rico's San Juan project and most recently Myanmar's Thanlyin project.
"Southeast Asia has been an important region for regas development this year. Vietnam and Myanmar have both completed terminals in record time to help stave off looming power shortages,” Wood Mackenzie's Asia LNG research analyst Otavio Veras said. “Hai Linh Company has completed construction of a terminal in Vung Tau, Southeast Vietnam and plans to begin commercial operations by Q2 2021. In Myanmar, a small-scale terminal, located in Thanlyin, near the capital Yangon, received its first LNG cargo from Petronas, in May 2020."
According to WoodMac, the most interesting development is the proposed regasification terminal in southern Mozambique targeted for construction in Q1 2021.
"Although demand in southern Mozambique is presently modest, the terminal will also target demand in northern South Africa to replace decline at the Pande and Temane fields, which currently supply gas to more than 30 industries in the Maputo/Matola area and also to South Africa, through the 865-km ROMPCO pipeline," Farrer said.