Singapore will be Asia’s new LNG trading hub
The small city-state of Singapore is on the verge to become Asia’s new trading hub for liquefied natural gas, and this will be crucial for Qatar’s LNG trade in the immediate future. As part of the expansion of its brand new LNG terminal, Singapore now aims to increase liquefied natural gas imports and plans to award import licenses to as many as two suppliers and almost triple the amount of gas it can receive over the next three years.
Currently, the $1.7 billion terminal has two big storage facilities. A third tank at the terminal is slated for completion by the end of 2013, increasing the terminal’s capacity to 6mn tonnes a year. The government also plans for a fourth tank and associated regasification facilities by 2016, which will raise capacity to 9 million tonnes a year. This will naturally lead to a good response from potential LNG players, first of all Qatar. There is also the possibility of co-investments in LNG terminals and infrastructure in Singapore and beyond, as there is a lack of interconnected natural gas pipeline infrastructure all over Southeast Asia.
Unsurprisingly, Qatargas CEO Khalid bin Khalifa al-Thani praised the new opportunities in the region when he held the keynote speech at the Singapore International Energy Week held from October 28 to November 1 in the city-state. He mentioned that in 2012, Asia imported an additional 15.6 million tonnes of LNG over the 2011 figure, which represents a year-on-year increase of 10 per cent.
As a consequence of its nuclear reactors shutdown, Japan alone represented over 50 per cent of the Asian LNG consumption growth with imports reaching 87.5 million tonnes in 2012. Southeast Asian LNG demand is expected to be well over 40mn tonnes per annum by 2025 and will account for 13 per cent of the total demand in Asia-Pacific. Several factors are driving this increasing LNG demand, including the region’s continued strong economic growth, the need for diversified gas supplies and the need to offset declining legacy and remote gas supply sources.
The region has already overtaken Europe as the world’s biggest gas importer, now accounting for 46 per cent of global trade, according to the International Energy Agency, which identifies Singapore as being best-placed to become the center for trading LNG, with Qatar as its natural partner.
Inside Investor has just published its brand-new investment report Inside ASEAN 2013-14, which sheds light on investment opportunities in the ten-member bloc of Asean. The report includes a large number of analyses, interviews, background information, facts and figures and practical tips how to succeed as investor in Asean and what to avoid.
This comment is part of Inside Investor’s weekly column series in Qatar’s leading newspaper Gulf Times and is published every Sunday.
The small city-state of Singapore is on the verge to become Asia’s new trading hub for liquefied natural gas, and this will be crucial for Qatar’s LNG trade in the immediate future. As part of the expansion of its brand new LNG terminal, Singapore now aims to increase liquefied natural gas imports and plans to award import licenses to as many as two suppliers and almost triple the amount of gas it can receive over the next three years. Currently, the $1.7 billion terminal has two big storage facilities. A third tank at the terminal is slated for completion by...
The small city-state of Singapore is on the verge to become Asia’s new trading hub for liquefied natural gas, and this will be crucial for Qatar’s LNG trade in the immediate future. As part of the expansion of its brand new LNG terminal, Singapore now aims to increase liquefied natural gas imports and plans to award import licenses to as many as two suppliers and almost triple the amount of gas it can receive over the next three years.
Currently, the $1.7 billion terminal has two big storage facilities. A third tank at the terminal is slated for completion by the end of 2013, increasing the terminal’s capacity to 6mn tonnes a year. The government also plans for a fourth tank and associated regasification facilities by 2016, which will raise capacity to 9 million tonnes a year. This will naturally lead to a good response from potential LNG players, first of all Qatar. There is also the possibility of co-investments in LNG terminals and infrastructure in Singapore and beyond, as there is a lack of interconnected natural gas pipeline infrastructure all over Southeast Asia.
Unsurprisingly, Qatargas CEO Khalid bin Khalifa al-Thani praised the new opportunities in the region when he held the keynote speech at the Singapore International Energy Week held from October 28 to November 1 in the city-state. He mentioned that in 2012, Asia imported an additional 15.6 million tonnes of LNG over the 2011 figure, which represents a year-on-year increase of 10 per cent.
As a consequence of its nuclear reactors shutdown, Japan alone represented over 50 per cent of the Asian LNG consumption growth with imports reaching 87.5 million tonnes in 2012. Southeast Asian LNG demand is expected to be well over 40mn tonnes per annum by 2025 and will account for 13 per cent of the total demand in Asia-Pacific. Several factors are driving this increasing LNG demand, including the region’s continued strong economic growth, the need for diversified gas supplies and the need to offset declining legacy and remote gas supply sources.
The region has already overtaken Europe as the world’s biggest gas importer, now accounting for 46 per cent of global trade, according to the International Energy Agency, which identifies Singapore as being best-placed to become the center for trading LNG, with Qatar as its natural partner.
Inside Investor has just published its brand-new investment report Inside ASEAN 2013-14, which sheds light on investment opportunities in the ten-member bloc of Asean. The report includes a large number of analyses, interviews, background information, facts and figures and practical tips how to succeed as investor in Asean and what to avoid.
This comment is part of Inside Investor’s weekly column series in Qatar’s leading newspaper Gulf Times and is published every Sunday.
