| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
SINGAPORE: South Korea's Samsung C&T Corporation has won the tender to build Singapore's first liquefied natural gas terminal.
Samsung C&T will handle the engineering, procurement and construction of the terminal under a contract worth about S$1 billion.
The Singapore LNG Corporation (SLNG) announced this at a signing ceremony on Monday. SLNG was incorporated by the government's Energy Market Authority to own and develop Singapore's first LNG import terminal.
SLNG's executive director, Neil McGregor, said: "There were many factors that led to selecting the Samsung proposal. Key to this was a very novel and efficient design, which minimised the footprint of the new terminal, thereby freeing up land within the site that SLNG can capitalise on to expand its business and the range of services it can provide in the future."
All in, the government is investing S$1.5 billion in the LNG terminal project.
LNG is natural gas cooled to liquid form, making the gas more practical to transport and store.
The LNG terminal, which will occupy 30 hectares of land on the southwestern part of Jurong Island, is expected to be Asia's first open-access, multi-user terminal.
It will not only provide capacity for Singapore to import re-gasified LNG for its own needs, but also open up opportunities for companies to make use of the terminal for LNG trading.
The LNG terminal will have an initial capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per year, slightly above past projections of 3 million tonnes, with provisions to expand it to 6 million tonnes per year or more if needed.
The terminal is now due to be completed in early 2013, after a deferment of one year. Foster Wheeler Asia Pacific has been named the project management consultant.
The government said in June last year it was taking over development of the terminal to avoid more delays due to the credit crunch. The project was previously fronted by a PowerGas-led consortium, which included GDF Suez.
Currently, 80 per cent of Singapore's electricity comes from gas-fired power plants. LNG will be an additional source to help Singapore meet increasing energy needs.
Lawrence Wong, chief executive of Energy Market Authority, said: "From an energy security point of view, our imperative is to want to diversify our sources of gas. The terminal enables us to do that, because with the LNG terminal, we plug into the global gas market and we would have a much more diversified source of gas that we can get from all over the world.
"Of course, through our aggregator British Gas, whom we've appointed, we would be able to access gas on a market basis, on a competitive price. So, I think, from that point of view, the LNG terminal is a critical infrastructure that will provide for our energy security and ensure that we have a more sustainable energy future."
- CNA/ir
|
