Taiwan may see only modest growth in LNG imports from RI

Taiwan's LNG imports for this year are expected to total 7 million metric tons, registering only modest growth of 2% from 2004, a senior official with Chinese Petroleum Corp., the country's sole LNG supplier, said Thursday.

"If no new gas-fired power plants come online, the growth of LNG imports is expected to remain low in the next few years," Jane Liao, general manager of CPC's LNG Purchase Division, told the Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the 8th Asean Council On Petroleum conference held in Manila.

The slow growth in LNG imports is mainly due to stable demand from power plants, the biggest users of LNG in Taiwan.

Power generation consumes about 87% of imported LNG, Liao said.

Taiwan is a major buyer of LNG in Asia, with the bulk of its imports coming from Indonesia and Malaysia.

In 2004, Indonesia's supplies accounted for 58% of Taiwan's total imports, while about 40% of the LNG was imported from Malaysia, according to Liao.

In this case, if there is any shortage in LNG supplies in these two countries, it will have a significant impact on Taiwan, Liao said.(*)