SINGAPORE: Thailand’s capacity to convert liquefied natural gas (LNG) will nearly double by the end of the decade as imports are set to rise to replace declining domestic natural gas production, a senior executive of PTT Plc said on Tuesday.
The country’s LNG imports have hit a record high this year as gas supply from the Gulf of Thailand was limited by technical constraints arising from the handover of concessions from Chevron to PTTEP Plc, said ML Peekthong Thongyai, senior vice-president for the gas business unit of the state majority-owned energy company.
The country’s gas consumption was close to 4.8 billion cubic feet per day with LNG imports meeting just over a third of demand, ML Peekthong said on the sidelines of the Gastech conference in Singapore.
Costly LNG imports have been a major factor behind the high cost of electricity, something the new Pheu Thai-led government has pledged to address as quickly as possible.
Super-cooled LNG has to be heated to convert it into natural gas at atmospheric temperature — a process known as regasification — so that it can be distributed via normal pipelines.
ML Peekthong expects LNG imports to fall to “a more manageable level” at the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year as domestic gas production recovers.
PTT Exploration and Production Plc (PTTEP), which now operates the Erawan block in the Gulf, has said it plans to increase production by 50% to 600 million cubic feet per day in December, then raise it again to 800 million in April 2024.
However, natural gas production is set to decline in the long run which will require more imports, said ML Peekthong.
The country’s regasification capacity is set to rise to about 30 million tonnes by the end of the decade, up from 19 million tonnes currently, he said.
PTT is also looking to diversify LNG imports and reduce pricing risks by buying from different locations and using a variety of benchmarks, he added.