LNG News Editor:
Osaka Gas, the Japanese utility and one of the nation’s top six LNG importers, said its engineering subsidiary was awarded a contract for the large expansion project at the Tai-Chung LNG import terminal in Taiwan.
The utility said the Daigas Gas and Power Solutions (DGPS), a fully-owned unit of Osaka Gas, was awarded the front-end engineering and design and technical consulting contract for the Phase-4 Expansion of Tai-Chung LNG, owned and operated by the Taiwanese energy company CPC Corp.
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Taiwan is still Asia’s fifth-largest LNG importer after North Asia’s top three of Japan, China and South Korea and with India in fourth place.
It has two existing terminal, Tai-Chung completed in built in 2009 and the earlier Yung-An facility in operation since 1990.
The Taiwanese are also constructing a third LNG terminal to meet increasing demand after imports rose 6 percent last year to 17.75 million tonnes.
“The Taiwanese government has been pursuing an energy policy which targets nuclear power phase-out and reduction of greenhouse gas emission,” said Osaka Gas’s DGPS.
“Under this energy policy, the government is planning to increase the share of natural gas in power generation to 50 percent by 2025 and CPC is expanding its LNG regasification and storage capacity in tandem with the plan,” it added.
The Phase-4 expansion includes building four LNG storage tanks each with 180,000 cubic metres of storage capacity, regasification facilities and a jetty for LNG tankers.
“After the completion of this project scheduled in 2029, LNG handling capacity of Tai-Chung LNG Receiving Terminal will increase to 13 million tonnes per annum,” said the utility.
The first phase of the new Taoyuan terminal construction should be completed by 2023 and a second expansion has already been proposed.
