US engineering and construction giant Bechtel has started work on two LNG storage tanks as part of the third expansion phase at CPC’s Taichung import terminal in Taiwan.
Bechtel is building the LNG tanks with Taiwan’s Ming Rong Yuan Business (MRY).
The three companies held a groundbreaking ceremony at the Taichung LNG terminal site on July 15, according to a statement by Bechtel.
Bechtel will execute engineering, procurement, and construction of two 180,000 cbm-containment LNG tanks. Also, the firm claims these are Taiwan’s largest LNG storage tanks ever built.
Besides tanks, the third expansion phase also includes regasification facilities.
“CPC is leading the way for Taiwan in meeting the country’s clean energy aspirations by rapidly expanding the country’s LNG import terminals to support the move from coal to natural gas as their primary transitional source of energy for the near future,” it said.
10 million tons of LNG per year
CPC launched the Taichung LNG import facility back in 2009. The terminal currently has six storage tanks with a capacity of 960,000 cbm and a regasification capacity of about 6 million tons per year, according to GIIGNL data.
The third expansion phase of the facility complements Taiwan’s plans to increase power generation fueled by natural gas to 50 percent of the island’s total power generation by 2025, CPC said in a separate statement.
Following completion of the project in 2026, this phase would boost the Taichung terminal’s capacity to 10 million tons per year, CPC said.
Earlier this year, a consortium led by Japan’s JGC secured a contract from CPC to build eight LNG vaporizers with a total capacity of 1,600 tons per hour and associated facilities in Taichung.
JGC expects the completion of this project in 2024.
Further expansion
CPC is also working on the fourth expansion stage at the Taichung LNG terminal.
The firm has already awarded front-end engineering and design (FEED) and technical consulting service for this expansion project to Daigas Gas and Power Solution, a unit of Japan’s Osaka Gas.
This project includes building four LNG storage tanks each with 180,000 cbm storage capacity, regasification facilities, and a jetty for LNG tankers.
After the completion of this project scheduled in 2029, LNG handling capacity of the Taichung LNG receiving terminal would increase to 13 million tons per year, Osaka Gas previously said.
Besides the Taichung LNG plant, CPC operates the Yung-An facility in Kaohsiung, but it is also working on a third plant in Taoyuan.
The firm mainly imports LNG from Qatar, Australia, Russia, and the US. Last year, it signed a new 15-year deal with QatarEnergy and started importing LNG under a long-term contract with US LNG player Cheniere.