The liquefied natural gas industry is now entering a major new phase that will see global supply grow by almost 50% in four years, according to Thai Energy Minister Poonpirom Liptapanlop.
Speaking at the Gastech 2008 conference held in Bangkok, Thailand, the Minister said that LNG would fill the gap between domestic supply and climbing demand.
“It is projected that the US will overtake Japan as the world’s largest importer early in the next decade. By 2020 US LNG imports will be as high as 137 million tonnes and account for 28% of global LNG demand,” said Lieutenant General Poonpirom.
Expected to receive first cargoes in 2012, Thailand is itself forging ahead with plans for its LNG import project, where it will complement domestic gas production and pipeline gas imports from neighbour Burma and from the Malaysia-Thailand joint development area.
Thailand’s consumption of natural gas increased from about 130 million ft3 per day in 1981 to about 3.3 billion ft3 per day now and is expected to reach approximately 5 billion ft3 per day by 2012.
The country’s existing offshore and onshore pipeline networks are capable of handling more than 4.2 billion ft3 per day of gas. However, with the commissioning of a second phase of the country’s third pipeline system, its expected to handle up to 5.4 billion ft3 per day once completed in 2009.
“Plans are also under way for the fourth onshore pipeline and the expansion of the western network that will increase our combined transmission capacity to over 7 billion ft3 per day in future and can support the growing demand for a decade.
“I believe that the world natural gas industry will continue growing steadily in the coming years. Thailand will play an important role in helping link the countries across south-east Asia with our strategic location between large reserves and emerging energy markets,” she added.
