Japan's largest gas utility Tokyo Gas Monday said that its wholly owned subsidiary Tokyo Gas Engineering has been awarded a front-end engineering and design contract for Vietnam's maiden LNG import terminal to be located at Thi Vai in the southern part of the country.
The terminal is expected to begin operations in 2015. Tokyo Gas also hopes to win the engineering contract to build the terminal, Tokyo Gas General Manager of Business Development Hiroshi Kishino said at a press briefing in Tokyo.
The LNG terminal will be equipped with a 100,000 kl (100,000 cubic meter) tank, regasification units and a berth for LNG vessels, Tokyo Gas said.
Tokyo Gas also inked a memorandum of understanding with state-owned PetroVietnam's subsidiary PV Gas to help develop the Southeast Asian country's LNG value chain and help it with LNG procurement, the Japanese utility said.
The MOU was signed by Tokyo Gas President Tsuyoshi Okamoto and PV Gas President & CEO Do Khang Ninh in Ho Chi Minh City.
Kishino told reporters that PV Gas had signed the MOU after vetting Tokyo Gas' "know-how" on LNG businesses after its subsidiary won the FEED contract for Vietnam's first LNG terminal in February.
Asked whether Tokyo Gas would consider selling LNG from its supplier sources to PV Gas, Kishino said there was no such possibility for now.
"Our LNG procurements for the domestic market is already severe. Thus we will prioritize our procurements for the domestic market," Kishino said. "We, however, might able to share our experience and information as an LNG buyer because we have more than 40 years of experience as an LNG buyer."
Kishino added that studies and plans were underway for a number of possible LNG receiving terminal projects due to soaring demand for energy in areas such as electricity and industrial use.
Apart from the 1 million mt/year LNG import terminal that PV Gas is planning to build along the Thi Vai River in southern Vietnam, a second terminal of upto 3 million mt/year capacity at Binh Thuan in central Vietnam is planned to start up around 2018-20, a source familiar with the matter said.
PV Gas has been in talks with Australia and Qatar for LNG imports but is yet to firm up a sales and purchase agreement.
