Nebula Energy’s AG&P LNG and its partner Hai Linh plan to launch a tender next month for a commissioning cargo for their Cai Mep LNG import terminal in Vietnam.
Earlier this week, the partners launched the expression of interest for the supply of the commissioning LNG cargo to the terminal, according to a statement issued on Wednesday announcing the start of the commissioning of the facility.
The tender for the commissioning cargo is expected to be issued early June and awarded by end June 2024, the statement said.
The start of commercial operations of the Cai Mep LNG terminal is targeted for September 2024.
In March this year, AG&P LNG purchased a 49 percent stake in the $500 million facility from Vietnam’s Hai Linh.
The terminal has a capacity of 3 mtpa, expandable to 6 mtpa, and is one of the only two existing LNG terminals in Vietnam.
PetroVietnam Gas, a unit of state-owned PetroVietnam, officially launched its 3 mtpa Thi Vai LNG terminal, Vietnam’s first LNG import facility, in October last year.
The Cai Mep LNG terminal is located in Vung Tau district in South Vietnam and has pipeline connectivity to Vietnam’s largest power generation complex, the Phu My industrial zone, with a gas-fired capacity of 3.9 GW.
Moreover, the LNG terminal has three onshore tanks totaling to a capacity of 220,000 cbm of LNG storage, and LNG breakbulk capabilities that allow it to reload LNG into smaller vessels.
It also has 14 truck loading bays for LNG and CNG filling.
New LNG offtake deal
Karthik Sathyamoorthy, CEO of AG&P LNG said that the partners signed on Wednesday their second definitive LNG offtake agreement with “one of the demand aggregators in Vietnam”.
“We had signed our first definitive agreement for 1 Mtpa offtake with HPP power plant earlier this year in March,” he said.
“Very soon, we will be able to provide reliable LNG supply and immediately serve power and
nearby industrial customers,” Sathyamoorthy said.
According to the statement, AG&P LNG has six additional executed letters of intent (LOIs) with six more demand aggregators for downstream LNG distribution since it acquired the stake in the terminal in March.
AG&P LNG’s expansion
In January, US investment and asset management firm, Nebula Energy, purchased an 80 percent stake in AG&P LNG from Singapore-based AG&P.
With operational headquarters in the UAE, AG&P LNG now operates as an independent subsidiary of Nebula with key offices in UAE, Singapore, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia.
AG&P LNG has a “substantial growth pipeline” with a total of six LNG terminals in development with proposed capacity of 25 mtpa across several international growth projects, it previously said.
Of its LNG terminal project portfolio, AG&P LNG last year launched the first LNG import and regasification terminal in the Philippines, called the Philippines LNG (PHLNG) import terminal located in Batangas Bay.
In May 2023, AG&P LNG commissioned the first import terminal in the Philippines following the arrival of the 137,500-cbm FSU Ish at the terminal’s jetty in Batangas Bay.
AG&P LNG and its consortium members recently won a large-scale 20-year contract for LNG infrastructure development from a unit of Indonesia’s state power company PLN.
This infrastructure includes an LNG carrier, floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), and multiple onshore regasification sites, AG&P LNG said.