PetroChina builds LNG terminal on reclaimed land

PetroChina <0857.hk> is building one of its first liquefied natural gas terminals on reclaimed land off China's Yellow Sea, its parent company said.

The project, on a 0.3 square-kilometre landfill in Rudong county of Jiangsu province, is where the top Asian oil and gas firm plans to erect a terminal to receive 3.5 million tonnes of imported LNG by around 2011, a company official added.

PetroChina has plans to build at least four terminals along the coast by about 2011, having sealed two supply agreements last September that are potentially worth $50 billion of Australian gas. The firm has not announced which terminal will take the gas.

The man-made island in Rudong took less than 11 months to build, with 10.5 million cubic metres of rocks, and it's now ready to start the terminal construction, according to a report in parent company CNPC's online news service (news.cnpc.com.cn). The report did not provide cost details for the reclaimed island, or for the receiving terminal.

The report also quoted a PetroChina official on the project as saying, "In the near future, the PetroChina Jiangsu LNG project will become a bright scenic spot by the Yellow Sea, similar to the seven-star hotel in Dubai," a reference to the famed Burj Al Arab hotel project that was also built on reclaimed land.

The world's second-largest oil consumer is pushing aggressively to boost use of natural gas, by accelerating domestic production and through imports via pipelines from Russia and Myanmar, and via LNG tankers.

A receiving terminal regasifies LNG- a super-cooled gas in liquid form--and pipes to power plants, factories and residents.