China’s Caofeidian LNG import terminal in Tangshan has received its first liquefied natural gas cargo from Qatar, according to China Suntien Green Energy.
Suntien said in a statement that the 263,300-cbm Q-Max LNG carrier, Lijmiliya, docked at the terminal’s jetty on June 18.
The firm said that the vessel, owned by Nakilat and chartered by Qatargas, delivered about 203,000 cbm of LNG to the import facility from Qatar.
Lijmiliya’s Its AIS data provided by VesselsValue shows that the LNG carrier loaded the shipment at the giant Ras Laffan LNG complex at the end of May.
Back in December 2021, QatarEnergy’s unit Qatargas 2 entered into a 15-year deal with China’s S&T International, a unit of Suntien, to supply about 1 million mt of LNG per year, primarly to the Tangshan terminal.
Hebei provincial government-controlled Suntien, which was stablished by Hebei Construction & Investment Group and HECIC Water Investment in 2010, said the arrival of this first vessel will improve the emergency peaking and supply capacity of natural gas in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei.
Suntien said the Tangshan LNG terminal will now enter into the trial stage, but it did not provide any additional information in the statement.
Three phases
The firm is building the LNG import terminal in three phases.
China’s Offshore Oil Engineering Company (COOEC), a unit of CNOOC, won the EPC deal for the first phase of the Tangshan LNG import project back in 2019.
Hebei Construction Investment awarded the contract worth about 4.4 billion yuan ($613 million), COOEC previously said.
Moreover, the scope of work involved building four 200,000-cbm storage tanks and related supporting infrastructure including docks, process areas, and truck loading facilities.
The first phase will have a capacity of some 5 million mt.
Including the project’s second and the third phase, the facility will have a total annual capacity of 12 million mt of LNG, according to COOEC.