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29 March 2024

Taiwan seeks more LNG from Qatar

Published
By Agencies

 

Taiwan's sole gas importer CPC Corp is keen to buy more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from top exporter Qatar beyond the 3 million tonnes per year (tpy) it already gets, an executive told Reuters on Tuesday.


"We are interested in more, we need additional volumes (from Qatar)," Jane Liao, general manager of CPC's LNG purchase division told Reuters on the sidelines of an energy conference in the Qatari capital.

"We have made an expression of interest although we are not in formal, detailed discussions yet," she added.

CPC already has a 25-year deal with RasGas, under which the Qatari gas company supplies the island with 3 million tpy of LNG, gas chilled to its liquid form for export on specially designed tankers.

CPC also signed a deal in November to buy 2-3 million tonnes of LNG a year from Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd for between 15 and 20 years. Woodside will source the LNG from its Browse project off Western Australia.

Taiwan's demand for LNG is forecast to reach 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2010 and 16 mtpa by 2020. In 2006, Taiwan imported 7.8 million tonnes of LNG, with Indonesia and Malaysia the main suppliers, according to government trade data.

In 2008, Taiwan's LNG demand is expected to total some 9.4 million tonnes, with 6.4 million tonnes covered by long-term agreements, leaving 3 million tonnes that Taiwan will have to purchase on the spot market or through shorter-term deals.

Qatar, the world's largest exporter of LNG, plans to boost its LNG capacity by around 8 million tonnes to 39 million tonnes by the end of this year, an official said on Monday. (Reuters)