Singapore LNG Set to Get Cargo for Third Tank

File photo of the Singapore LNG Terminal at Jurong Island in Singapore. Image courtesy of Singapore LNG Corporation

By Chou Hui Hong

July 27 (Bloomberg) — Singapore LNG Corp., which operates the Asian city-state’s first receiving terminal, is set to get a liquefied natural gas cargo for its third tank delivered tomorrow by the vessel Wilpride.

“We confirm that the Singapore LNG Terminal will be receiving a cargo of LNG that is not intended for import into Singapore,” SLNG’s spokesman Simon Ang said in an e-mailed statement today. Ang declined to give further details of the cargo, citing reasons of commercial confidentiality.

SLNG’s Jurong Island facility in western Singapore has three tanks that can handle 6 million metric tons a year. A fourth will be added by 2017, increasing capacity to 9 million tons. The company may make the third tank available for traders to carry out short-term transactions, SLNG’s chief executive John Ng said in an interview at his office March 20.

“This cargo is interesting because of the timing vis-a-vis the market,” Tony Regan, an energy consultant at Tri-Zen International Inc. in Singapore said by phone. “The market in the second quarter this year is weak with low prices, and there’s an expectation prices will be much stronger when the gas is reloaded two to three months down the road.”

The owner of this shipment may be able to sell it for as much as $16 per million British thermal units for winter delivery compared with current spot LNG prices of below $11, according to Regan.

Pavilion Gas

Pavilion Gas has contracted for an LNG cargo to be shipped to SLNG and has done several trading deals, a Pavilion Energy spokesman said in an e-mailed statement. Pavilion Gas, which executes all trading transactions, is wholly-owned by Pavilion Energy, according to the spokesman.

Pavilion Gas bought Singapore’s first spot LNG cargo from Indonesia’s state-run Pertamina, said two people with knowledge of the shipment last week, asking not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak to media. The Wilpride loaded gas at the Bontang plant in Kalimantan, Indonesia, and departed July 23, transmissions captured by IHS Fairplay on Bloomberg show.

Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s state-owned investment company, set up Pavilion Energy in April last year. Pavilion Gas concluded its first spot LNG deal earlier this year.

Asia accounts for 46 percent of global gas trade, according to the International Energy Agency, which identifies Singapore as best-placed to be a center for LNG trading. The region consumed 75 percent of the world’s LNG last year, data from the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers show.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg.