China Struggles to Find LNG for Terminal Projects

China will have a hard time acquiring enough LNG to feed its planned LNG terminals, according to a China Daily report. So far, Chinese companies have proposed building 16 LNG receiving terminals, with as many as 10 of these originally planned to be operational by 2010. However, so far, only two terminals, the most advanced in construction terms, have secured long-term gas supplies, according to the report. These are Guangdong’s Dapeng LNG and Fujian projects, which will start operations in June 2006 and at the end of 2007 using LNG from Australia’s Northwest Shelf and Indonesia’s Tangguh LNG, respectively. Despite successes in lining up gas for those two projects, CNOOC has made little headway in its efforts to buy LNG from Chevron Corp.’s Gorgon project in Australia, mainly due to disagreements on price. According to the report, prices are high due to a shortage of LNG in Asia. Source: China Daily