Three Words I Love To See In Same Headline: Soaring - Demand - LNG -- July 6, 2015

Rigzone is reporting:

Development of regasification infrastructure is picking up in Southeast Asia, as countries in the region seek to augment declining gas production from their mature hydrocarbon basins by importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to meet both export volumes and increasing domestic requirements.

Southeast Asia is an emerging LNG hotspot, with annual demand growing at 45 million tons, outstripping India’s 20 million tons, according to a Wood Mackenzie’s report released in February 2013.

Malaysia stands as the exception – maintaining its rank among the world’s top LNG net exporters in the foreseeable future. Elsewhere in the region – Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines – LNG is being sought after to feed domestic demand, and this has, in turn, fueled a drive towards expanding regasification capacity.

Thailand:

Thailand is in a unique position in that the country derives 90 percent of its domestic sales gas from Myanmar, according to data from PTT. The remaining 10 percent of Thailand’s gas imports – which meet 22 percent of the country’s gas demand – comes from LNG.

Philippines:

Like Thailand, the Philippines is also facing a looming gas crisis as reserves at the Royal Dutch Shell plc-operated Malampaya project – the sole producing gas field supplying domestic users – expected to be fully depleted by 2024. With no visibility on any replacement reserves from a new discovery rivaling that of Malampaya, Philippines National Oil Company’s Vice President for Upstream Raymundo Savella viewed importing LNG as the inevitable outcome to secure supplies of the “greenest” fossil fuel.

The Philippines Department of Energy plans to replace over 15,000 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired electricity supplies with those from gas-fired plants, translating to rising demand for gas over and above the current requirement.

Indonesia:

Southeast Asia’s other giant archipelago nation, Indonesia, looks set to take the lead in small to mid-scale LNG and regas developments in the region as its president, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo embarked on his pledged 35,000 MW electrification plan during his first five-year term.

For Jokowi to deliver on his pledged electrification plan, Indonesia would require more LNG imports to fill a widening shortfall of domestic gas supplies exacerbated by delays in upstream gas field developments. Large-scale field developments including Chevron-operated Gendalo-Gehem gas and condensate development and Inpex Corp.’s Abadi floating LNG project had been held back by among others, a lack of clarity in the extensions of the existing production sharing contracts.