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LNG terminal to enhance energy security: PM

SINGAPORE — The energy sector in the Republic reached another milestone yesterday as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong officially opened the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal here, a key facility that will enhance energy security and boost the country’s status as an oil and gas hub in the region.

Singapore’s first LNG terminal started operations in May last year and increased its capacity last month to 6 million Mtpa after the completion of a third storage tank. 
Photo: Singapore  
LNG Corp

Singapore’s first LNG terminal started operations in May last year and increased its capacity last month to 6 million Mtpa after the completion of a third storage tank.
Photo: Singapore
LNG Corp

SINGAPORE — The energy sector in the Republic reached another milestone yesterday as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong officially opened the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal here, a key facility that will enhance energy security and boost the country’s status as an oil and gas hub in the region.

The S$1.7-billion terminal will help in the diversification of Singapore’s energy sources and ensure that there will be enough supply to meet rising demand at competitive prices. Currently, about 90 per cent of electricity here is generated from natural gas, with the bulk of the supply coming from Malaysia and Indonesia through pipelines.

“As a small country without any natural or energy sources, Singapore imports almost all our fuel. So, we are vulnerable to supply risks and fluctuations in prices,” Mr Lee said at the official opening of the terminal.

“Previously, all our gas came from Malaysia and Indonesia in the form of piped natural gas. This source of supply faces some constraints — for example, the uncertainty of supply especially over the longer term, because demand in Malaysia and Indonesia will go up, and they had limited natural gas to sell to us. So, we needed to diversify our sources to overcome these constraints. Hence, we decided to build this LNG terminal.”

“We can import much more natural gas from global markets, including as far away as Trinidad and Tobago,” he added.

The terminal started operations in May last year when Britain’s BG Group, the appointed aggregator of the first three million tonnes per year of LNG, delivered the first commercial cargo from Equatorial Guinea.

Last month, the terminal increased its capacity to six million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) after the completion of a third storage tank.

Singapore will invite companies to supply the next tranche of LNG through a competitive “request-for-proposals” process by June, Mr Lee said. Plans are also underway for a fourth tank, which will add another 3 million Mtpa of throughput by 2017.

But the push for energy security does not stop there, said Mr Lee. The Government is looking into building a second LNG terminal in preparation for future energy needs.

“We are preparing for the possibility that our demand for natural gas may one day be met entirely by LNG. Therefore, we are building infrastructure ahead of demand and, by doing so, it will give us a strategic buffer and support the development of ancillary services like LNG trading, bunkering and vessel cool-down services,” he said.

“We are studying a few potential sites in eastern Singapore. This will enhance our energy security because it will geographically diversify our LNG import infrastructure.”

The growing LNG industry here will also create jobs for Singaporeans and support a range of related activities in the region, such as marketing, procurement and trading. This will help to further the Republic’s ambition to be an LNG hub in the region, said Singapore LNG Corp, the developer and operator of the terminal.

“The establishment of the Singapore LNG Terminal marks a new chapter in Singapore’s energy story — the terminal not only helps to enhance Singapore’s energy security, it is also changing the energy industry landscape and its future outlook by generating new LNG-related businesses and creating more job opportunities in the process,” said Mr Bob Tan, Chairman of Singapore LNG Corp.

But the search for new energy options continues. The Government has taken the first step in supporting pilot projects in solar energy, one of which involves experimenting with solar panels on the rooftops of HDB estates such as Treelodge@Punggol.

“Solar technology has seen significant progress in recent years. We want to learn more about solar, so that when it becomes cheaper and more competitive, we will be ready to deploy it on a larger scale,” said Mr Lee.

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