LNG

Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) said it was close to starting up the Pluto LNG-to-Karratha Gas Plant Interconnector linking the two LNG export facilities in Western Australia operated by Woodside.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (Sinopec), one of the main Chinese LNG importers, is taking volumes from Western Australia as well as its booked cargoes from the Australia-Pacific export plant in Queensland in the East of the country.

The 159,800 cubic metres capacity carrier “Woodside Rogers” lifted a cargo around mid-November for the two-week voyage to Sinopec’s Tianjin North onshore terminal.

Sinopec said that its Tianjin North onshore LNG terminal had received 7.06 million tonnes of LNG since the start of 2020, almost the total of its contracted volumes from the Australia-Pacific LNG plant in Queensland.

Sinopec said the “Woodside Rogers” was the 107th LNG carrier to have docked and unloaded at Tianjin in 2020.

“Since Tianjin terminal started accepting LNG in 2018, it has received and unloaded a total of 248 ships with about 16.5MT,” said Sinopec.

“With the start of the winter heating, the terminal in Tianjin is important to ensure the natural gas supply for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,” it added.

Sinopec additionally stated that its LNG imports rose to 12.53MT tonnes on an annualized basis, including more than 7MT from Australia.

Sinopec, which plans to more than double its LNG receiving capacities to 41MT by 2025, currently has capacity at three Chinese import terminals and is a partner of US major ConocoPhillips in the Australia-Pacific LNG export plant in Queensland.

The Chinese company’s regasification capacity in addition to Tianjin is at two other facilities, the Qingdao terminal in Shandong province and the Beihai LNG terminal in the Guangxi autonomous region bordering Vietnam.

China is currently reforming its pipeline and terminal systems by giving more access to third-party shippers.

Sinopec’s plans include expanding the Tianjin terminal, which supplies Beijing, to have a capacity to handle 12MT of imports.

It was recently estimated that China imported 23.5MT of Australian LNG in the first 10 months of 2020, in line with the same period last year.

Australia remains the world’s leading LNG exporter and will be just ahead of Qatar with 78MT of output in 2020 versus Qatar’s 77MT.

All Australian LNG projects export to China, though around half come from the three Queensland coal-seam-gas-to-LNG plants in which two Chinese companies have stakes.

Sinopec’s volumes from APLNG and China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s stake in the Royal Dutch Shell-owned Queensland Curtis LNG facility.

The Nangang import project being developed will give Tianjin port a third terminal scheduled to come on line in 2022 with 10 tanks and up to 2 million tonnes of storage.

Tianjin’s Nangang project is led by another company, Beijing Gas, and will have an initial 5 MTPA of capacity.

Australian LNG producer Woodside is advancing with its boosted seven-Train integrated LNG and gas hub in Western Australia and with overseas projects, including its offshore Myanmar gas venture to supply Rangoon and Thailand.

Woodside Petroleum, the Australian LNG plant operator, said at the Gastech 2019 conference in Houston that it had signed a supply agreement with Uniper Global Commodities, a unit of the Germany utility Uniper.

The Australian company said its subsidiary, Woodside Energy Trading Singapore, signed a heads of agreement with Uniper for the supply of LNG from Woodside’s portfolio for a period of 13 years starting in 2021.

The quantity of LNG to be supplied will initially be up to 0.5 million tonnes per annum, increasing to around 1 MTPA from 2025.

Woodside Chief Executive Peter Coleman said the accord signed at Gastech builds on previous LNG supply arrangements between Woodside and Uniper, whose headquarters are in Duesseldorf.

“This HOA deepens our relationship with Uniper, an international energy company and a leading player in global gas markets,” added Coleman.

“It is also another strong signal of market support for our plans to expand the Pluto LNG facility in Western Australia,” explained the CEO.

“The addition of a second LNG production train at Pluto, to be supplied with gas from the Scarborough offshore field development, is a key element of our proposed Burrup Hub,” stated Coleman.

Uniper Global Commodities Chief Executive Keith Martin said the company was committed to growing its LNG trading business in both the Atlantic and Pacific basins.

“This HOA with Woodside, one of Asia-Pacific’s leading LNG producers, is a further demonstration of the expansion of our portfolio in the region,” added Martin.

Woodside said the accord remained conditional on the negotiation and execution of a fully termed LNG sale and purchase agreement a final investment decision on the Scarborough gas and LNG development, including building a second liquefaction Train at the Pluto plant on the Burrup Pensinsula of Western Australia.

Woodside Petroleum, the operator of the North West Shelf LNG export plant in Western Australia, said that the Greater Western Flank Phase II venture off the northwest coast has commenced feed-gas production to help expand the lifespan for LNG and domestic volumes.