Taiwan ups 2016 LNG imports

Taiwan, the world’s fifth largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyer, boosted its imports of the chilled fuel by 2.7 percent last year.

Taiwan imported 14.97 million mt of LNG in 2016, as compared to 14.58 million mt the year before, according to the data released by the Directorate General of Customs.

The country paid about $4.92 billion for last year’s LNG imports as compared to $6.20 billion the year before, the data shows.

Qatar, the world’s top LNG exporter, remained the biggest supplier of the fuel to Taiwan in 2016.

LNG imports from Qatar reached 6.34 million mt, followed by Malaysia that supplied 2.57 million mt of the chilled fuel and Indonesia with 2.03 million mt.

The rest of the LNG imports in 2016 came from Papua New Guinea, Russia, Nigeria, Brunei, Australia, Oman, Algeria, UAE, Norway, Equatorial Guinea and Trinidad and Tobago.

Taiwan imported 1.24 million mt of LNG in December, as compared to 1.01 million mt in the same month in 2015, the customs data shows.

With less reliance on nuclear power and dwindling domestic natural gas resources, Taiwan is expected to increase its LNG imports in the future to drive power sector growth.

The country currently imports the chilled fuel via two regasification terminals, located in the central and southern parts of the island.

State-owned CPC is also planning to build a third LNG import terminal to serve the northern region near Taipei.

 

LNG World News Staff