Hoegh LNG Sets up Shop in Shanghai

Norwegian floating storage and regasification (FSRU) supplier Hoegh LNG has opened an office in Shanghai to pursue new projects, it said in a statement on social media on October 17.

Hoegh LNG has already entered China, with its Esperanza vessel operating as the country’s only FSRU under a contract with state-owned Cnooc. It also has financing agreements with China Construction Bank.

“We are convinced the Chinese LNG market will continue its high paced growth making it already the second largest LNG importer in the world,” Hoegh CEO Sveinung Stohle commented. “FSRUs will play an important role in the need for adding new LNG import capacity in the near term, and therefore having our own resources on the ground gives us the right strategic presence to continue our growth in this market.”

He told the Oil & Money conference in London a week before that China was very short of storage that it needed in order to modulate the  huge gas demand swings between winter and summer.

Chinese LNG imports reached an all-time high of 53.7mn tonnes in 2018, up 38% yr/yr, with the country supplanting South Korea as the world’s biggest LNG buyer after Japan.