Thursday January 17, 2008

Work on Singapore's first LNG terminal to start by early 2009

channelnewsasia.com :

Construction for Singapore's first terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is expected to start by early 2009. Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr S Iswaran, said work has to begin soon if it is to be ready by 2012.

The terminal will be built by PowerGas, a subsidiary of Singapore Power, at a cost at least S$1 billion. As part of Singapore's efforts to diversify energy resources, it will have a capacity of 3 million tonnes of gas per year. Mr Iswaran said the Energy Market Authority is in the midst of appointing a buyer to procure LNG for the terminal. He stressed that the main criteria is securing affordable, quality LNG for Singapore.

- The tone of the article seems a bit strange, with phrases like "construction .. is expected to start by early 2009", and "work has to begin soon". And one thing about the cost. First they said this : "the terminal is expected to cost about $500 million, Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang said". And now they say this : "The terminal will be built by PowerGas ... at a cost at least S$1 billion". How's that for a 100% rate of inflation?

Even if the LNG terminal were to be ready by 2012, if there are no other alternative plans for generating baseload electricity, the game would be over. Do they know how *over* the game would be? By 2010, we would be facing global peak oil *and* gas. Global conventional light sweet crude oil has *already* peaked back in May 2005.

They are building the casinos faster than they are building the infrastructure to power the casinos (and everything else). Where is the sense of priority here? By 2012, natural gas trading markets would be up and running, and whatever available gas would be going to the highest bidder. Singapore would be bidding along with giants like the US, Japan, China and India. Actually, we would also be bidding alongside our current piped-gas supplier Indonesia, which is building its own LNG terminal. It would be fun. Almost as fun as playing at the casinos.

See also :

1. Singapore to build first LNG terminal to diversify energy sources
2. Singapore commits to LNG for meeting future energy needs
3. LNG at best an interim measure, alternatives must be looked into
4. Indonesian firms to build LNG terminal (and why Singapore should go nuclear)
5. Southeast Asian oil output likely to peak by 2013 (and gas output by 2020)

(2008-01-17 13:16:37 SGT) [Energy] Permalink

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