Thailand’s National Power Generation Authority (Egat) and the national oil and gas group PTT have joined hands to jointly invest in the second liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Rayong Province as part of the new natural gas supply management. Egat Governor Boonyanit Wongrukmit said that Egat expects to spend 20 billion baht on investment.

Egat and PTT recently signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the joint development of a new facility at Nong Fab in Rayong Province, with a storage capacity of 7.5 million tons per year. The joint venture is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2022. The Nong Fab project was initiated by PTT, which also owns an LNG receiving terminal in Map Ta Phut. Construction of the Nong Fab plant, costing 38.5 billion baht, began in March 2019 and is scheduled to start operations in 2022.

Mr. Boonyanit said that the National Energy Policy Committee (NEPC) wants Egat to invest 50% in the project instead of building a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) in the upper part of the Gulf of Thailand. FSRU aims to supply natural gas for projects at Bang Pakong Power Plant and South Bangkok Power Plant. However, NEPC decided to cancel the FSRU project because it is less commercially viable than the FSRU project in the downstream Gulf of Thailand, which aims to supply gas to a new Egat-operated power plant in the Phunphin district of Surat Thani, said earlier Energy officials who requested anonymity.

Keywords: Liquefied Natural Gas, International Engineering

Mr. Boonyanit said that the joint LNG receiving terminal was established after NEPC decided in April to make Egat and PTT the key agencies to promote the government’s plan to make Thailand a regional LNG trading center. To achieve this goal, NEPC allows Egat and other energy companies to apply for LNG import licenses in order to enter the LNG shipping supply chain.Editor/Baohongying