Regional LNG: China Guangdong LNG terminal construction faces delay
Thursday, May 22 2003 - 08:28 AM WIB
Technical experts at China International Engineering & Consulting Corp., a government entity that assesses major industry projects, have asked project owners to justify the construction of additional facilities, the officials said.
"The project owners are now doing additional studies on the gas distribution network," a CIECC executive said.
The project has nine shareholders, including CNOOC and BP PLC , with 30% and 33% stakes, respectively.
Originally, construction on the project was slated to begin in March. The delay could push the start of construction to the second half of this year.
"The project is unlikely to meet the construction completion deadline of June 2006 if construction doesn't begin in the second half this year," he said.
An official of China National Offshore Oil Corp. said construction was scheduled to start in March this year, but was delayed due to additional time needed for CIECC to assess the distribution network and some downstream projects.
LNG demand in Guangdong is expected to rise 12% by 2006 to 3.7 million tons and proposals have already been approved for construction of four LNG-based power plants in Guangdong with a capacity totaling 3,500 megawatts by 2005, expandable to 6,650 MW by 2010.
In line with the expected increase in demand, the project owners have adjusted the original construction plan, adding one more power plant and extending the length of the pipeline.
The owners will need to build an additional pipeline with a total length of 300,000 kilometers to link the new power plant with the 330-kilometer trunkline as well as doubling the number of gas depots to four, with capacity totaling 640,000 cubic meters.
These changes increased the estimated cost of construction by increased 43% to 7.3 billion yuan (US$1=CNY8.28). (*)