Qatar Liquefied Gas (Qatargas) announced Friday it has delivered its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipment to Thailand’s national oil and gas company PTT.
The 90,000-tonne LNG is the first delivery from the sales and purchase agreement the two companies signed in 2012.
The agreement is for 2mn tonnes annually, or around 280mn cubic feet per day, for the next 20 years.
The LNG was delivered via the Q-flex LNG carrier from Qatargas’ export facility in Ras Laffan on 8th of January to PTT’s Map Ta Phut terminal in Rayong.
PTT said it is in the process of expanding the capacity of its receiving terminal, which will allow it to accommodate 10mn tonnes of LNG per year- a 50% increase from its existing 5mn tonnes capacity.
The expansion is expected to be completed in 2017.
Source close to the company revealed it could increase its LNG imports to 3mn mt in 2015 from around 1.4mn mt last year due to a decreasing pipeline supply from Myanmar.
“Thailand’s demand for natural gas is increasing every year,” PTT President and CEO Pailin Chuchottaworn said in a statement on Thursday.
“However, the supply of natural gas in the Gulf of Thailand and Myanmar is on a downward trend. Therefore, LNG is an important alternative in sufficiently supporting the nation’s energy demand,” he added.
Qatargas is the world’s largest liquefied natural gas company. Its annual LNG production capacity stands at 77mn tonnes a year, which is the equivalent of around 33% of total global LNG sales.
Qatar has total natural gas reserves of around 900 trillion cubic feet, enough to meet demand for natural gas for more than 100 years.
