Regional LNG: Mahathir inaugurates Petronas LNG complex
Thursday, May 8 2003 - 06:55 AM WIB
Also present at the ceremony was Petronas president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Hassan Marican.
The complex, the world's largest LNG production facility on a single location, measures 276. It comprises three plants -- MNLG 1, MNLG 2 and MNLG 3 -- and they have a production capacity of 8.1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), 7.8 MTPA and 6.8 MTPA respectively.
The complex is complete with storage tanks and loading jetties for the LNG to be stored and exported to overseas customers via special tankers.
With the cpmplex? completion, Malaysia will overtake Alegria?s position as world?s number two LNG producer after Indonesia.
Since its inception in 1983 to March 31, 2003, some 188 million tonnes of LNG had been shipped from the complex, generating US$36.1 billion (RM137.18 billion) in revenue.
Most of the LNG is exported to Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, where Malaysia's share of their LNG markets stands at 25 percent, 49 percent and 21 percent respectively.
The country's venture into LNG exports took root in 1967 when substantial natural gas reserves were discovered in the Central Luconia area located between 125 km and 275 km offshore Bintulu.
Malaysia is presently the third largest LNG exporter in the world, accounting for 13 percent or 15 million tonnes per annum of global exports, after Indonesia and Algeria.
In 2002, LNG accounted for 5.6 percent of Malaysia's gross national product and three percent of Malaysia's gross exports. (*)