Regional LNG: Singapore to build S$1b LNG plant: Report

Singaporean electricity firm Singapore Power Ltd will build the country's first liquefied natural gas (LNG)  terminal at a cost of S$1billion to cut reliance on supplies from Indonesia and Malaysia. The Malaysian Star reported Wednesday.

 

The government would invite bids from investors to supply the gas and jointly develop the terminal with PowerGas Ltd, a unit of state-owned Singapore Power, said Minister of State for Trade S. Iswaran. The supplier for the terminal, which will be able to handle one million tons of LNG by 2012, will be decided by the second quarter of 2008.

 

The terminal would be built on Jurong Island, Iswaran told reporters. The facility would have a capacity of three million tons on completion by 2012, leaving “scope to import more LNG for trading'', he said.

 

The facility offers the republic an alternative power source to reduce the risk of a repeat of supply cuts from that caused blackouts in November 2003 and June 2004.

 

The city-state gets 80% of its electricity from natural gas imported via pipelines from Indonesia and Malaysia. It imports an equivalent of six million tons of LNG a year from the two countries.

 

Singapore has no energy resources of its own. Indonesian fields that supply the city-state's gas pipelines will start running out in 2016, forcing the government to look outside South-East Asia for the fuel.

 

Singapore's LNG demand will increase by three million tons to nine million tons by 2018. (*)