PTT to build two LNG warehouses

TEXAS, April 18 (TNA) - PTT Public Company Limited (PTT), Thailand’s largest energy conglomerate, plans to construct two new warehouses, due to be complete by 2020, with their total containing capacity of 25 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet rising domestic energy demand, amid dwindling natural gas explored in the Gulf of Thailand, and to also meet the Thai government's 20-year Power Development Plan (PDP). Minister Attached to the Prime Minister’s Office Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisarn told journalists on Thursday (Thailand's time), while attending the 17th International Conference and Exhibition on LNG in Houston, the US Texas State, that the Thai government supports PTT to import LNG to sustain national energy security amid Thailand’s economic growth of some 4-5 per cent annually. Niwattumrong insisted that there is a need for Thailand to have sufficient energy with low-cost to cater to the national economic growth and development and for local people to have sufficient electricity for consumption. Charcrie Buranakanonda, a PTT vice president for gas business, acknowledged that the construction of the two LNG warehouses is projected to be complete by 2020 to timely cope with dwindling natural gas production in Thailand. Andy Brown, Director of Shell’s Upstream International Business Division, said, meanwhile, that global demand for LNG is expected to rise by double in 2025, when the United States will become a major LNG exporter, from an importer now, following its recent discovery of natural shale gas, which will help boost gas reserves in the world, to 250 years from 60 years currently, starting from now. (TNA)