June 20, 2022 [Argus] – PipeChina’s 6mn t/yr Dalian LNG terminal is applying to customs authorities to re-export LNG.
Dalian LNG is located at the tip of Liaodong Peninsula, with Korea Peninsula to its east and Bohai Bay and coastal Chinese cities including Tianjin to its west. The terminal has applied to set up bonded tanks to re-export LNG to Japan and South Korea in an attempt to boost terminal usage and utilise its LNG reloading capacity.
LNG transit through the terminal has fallen this year as a result of Covid-19 outbreaks in Dalian, increased Russian pipeline receipts and regional grid pressure, in addition to high global gas prices, according to the terminal.
A total of 845,000t of import capacity has been freed up at the terminal from June to December 2022 in the terminal availability schedule published by PipeChina in May, compared with a previous schedule published in April. There was no further availability change in June’s published schedule.
This includes 260,000t of capacity freed up for December, which is typically the beginning of the peak winter receipt season for terminals in north China — the Dalian terminal received 421,000t in December last year, shiptracking data from Vortexa show.
The terminal has received 698,000t of LNG this year, down from 1.02mn t in the same period last year and a three-year average of 1.3mn t, according to Vortexa.
More terminal availability
Chinese LNG imports have been lower on the year since January as Covid-19 restrictions have weighed on downstream demand, cutting import demand for later in the year.
Other LNG terminals in the region along the Bohai coast include PipeChina’s 6mn t/yr Tianjin terminal and Sinopec’s 10.8mn t/yr Tianjin terminal, as well as Sinopec’s planned 6mn t/yr Longkou terminal in Yantai, Shandong. PipeChina’s Tianjin terminal has 260,000t of import capacity freed up in July, according to the June schedule.
PipeChina’s Beihai terminal has also had more available capacity from July to October in the latest schedule, and all PipeChina’s LNG terminals showed more available LNG import capacity in the May schedule than in April, except the 3mn t/yr Hainan terminal.
LNG receipts at both operational terminals in Tianjin have been significantly lower on the year, according to Vortexa — PipeChina has received 698,000t in 2022, down from 2.65mn t, and Sinopec has received 2.6mn t, down from 3.56mn t a year earlier.
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