Japanese firm signs deal with joint venture company called Iteco for terminal in the North
LNG News Editor:
Japan Petroleum Exploration (Japex), which operates the main LNG import terminal in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture and has wide energy industry experience, is taking its expertise to Vietnam to help develop an LNG receiving terminal in the Vietnamese port city of Haiphong.
Japex has just signed a share purchase agreement with a Vietnamese joint venture company called Iteco to develop the project in the Nam Dinh Vu Industrial Park.
Approved
Terminal will initially handle up to 650,000 tonnes per annum of LNG and is expected to come online in 2025, subject to a final investment decision.
The project, which also includes procurement, storage, and supply of LNG, has already received government approval.
“Japex will respond to the demand for natural gas and LNG as a lower environmental impact energy source in Japan and abroad, utilizing our capabilities in domestic natural gas supply, such as LNG terminal operations and gas supply chain establishment,” said the Tokyo-based company’s statement.
“The company signed a share purchase agreement with Iteco joint stock company, based in Ho Chi Minh City, northern Vietnam, the promote the project,” added Japex.
“This project, including the Northern Vietnam LNG Terminal, was approved by the Government to be added to the Gas Industry Development Master Plan,” stated Japex.
Japex declared that it was currently working to make a final investment decision expected in the second half of 2022.
“In alignment with the project, Iteco JSC is currently moving forward with discussions about LNG procurement as well as its offtake and distribution,” Japex said.
Japex has worked on the development and production of oil and natural gas in Japan itself and overseas in nations like Indonesia and Iraq and is also expanding into the power business.
Japex's own Japanese import terminal at Soma port started operations in 2018 and is the first large-scale LNG terminal in Fukushima Prefecture, comprising two LNG tanks with a capacity of 230,000 cubic metres.
The terminal receives and stores LNG from overseas and regasified cargoes are fed into the pipeline gas grid, also serving a nearby power plant, or can be distributed along the coast or loaded onto trucks.
The Japex small-scale carrier vessel has 4,800 cubic metres capacity and the Soma terminal has five lanes for LNG tank trucks.
Vietnam is developing up to six LNG import projects backed by power plant developments along its coast from the northern port of Haiphong to the ports in the South.
Singapore-based Delta Offshore is using Stena’s jetty-less LNG transfer and regasification system for the venture planned for Bac Lieu province in Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta.
Stena’s Jetty-less Floating Terminal (JFT) and Self-Installing Regas Platform (SRP) will enable LNG imports to provide 3,200 megawatts of gas-fired power for Bac Lieu’s economic development.
PetroVietnam
State company PetroVietnam Gas said it was making progress with plans to raise investments for infrastructure for importing, storing and distributing LNG nationwide and that the start-up of imports is less than a year away.
PV Gas said that each region of the southeast Asian nation would have one of three proposed LNG hubs.
These are the Thi Vai LNG storage and regasification terminal in the South, the Son My LNG storage and regas facility in the central region and a large storage and regas hub covering Quang Ninh, Haiphong and Thanh Hoa in the North.
