LNG producer Qatargas, a unit of QatarEnergy, confirmed it has delivered the first LNG cargo to CNOOC’s Jiangsu-Binhai LNG terminal in China.
According to a statement by Qatargas issued on Sunday, the firm loaded the commissioning cargo in Ras Laffan on September 10 on the 210,000-cbm Q-Flex LNG carrier, Al Ghashamiya.
The LNG carrier, chartered by Qatargas and owned by Nakilat, delivered the shipment to the Jiangsu-Binhai LNG terminal on September 26.
Qatargas said the terminal has a nominal capacity of three million tons of LNG per annum and can receive vessels with a capacity of between 80,000 cubic meters and 266,000 cubic meters.
LNG Prime reported on this development on September 27 based on a statement by CNOOC Gas & Power, a unit of state-owned CNOOC.
According to CNOOC, the vessel unloaded the cargo to the terminal’s third tank out of four with a capacity of 220,000 cbm.
CNOOC claims this is the first 220,000-cbm LNG storage tank officially put into use in China.
Besides these four tanks, CNOOC is building six 270,000-cbm LNG storage tanks at the same facility and it recently completed raising the roofs on all of them.
These are the world’s largest LNG storage tanks, according to CNOOC.
Combined, these ten tanks will have a total capacity of 2.5 million cubic meters, forming the largest LNG storage base in China.
Following completion in 2023, the Binhai LNG terminal will have a regasification capacity of 6 million tons of LNG, or about 8.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
Almost 900 LNG cargoes to China
Qatargas said it has established a “strong partnership” with China since 2009. The firm has delivered almost 900 LNG cargoes to China so far under its various long-term sales and purchase agreements which includes “significant volumes” of short term and spot LNG.
CNOOC is the largest LNG importer in China and in 2021, one of its subsidiaries signed a 15-year sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with Qatargas for the supply of 3.5 mtpa of LNG.
In 2022, Qatar supplied about 22 percent of China’s LNG demand thereby supporting China’s growing need for cleaner energy that LNG provides, according to Qatargas.
Moreover, the Jiangsu-Binhai terminal is the ninth terminal Qatargas has commissioned in China.
Since 2008, Qatargas has commissioned 27 new LNG terminals worldwide, it said.