Hong Kong Billionaires Study Offshore LNG Terminal for City

Hong Kong is thirsty for cheap liquefied natural gas.

The two companies that supply power to Asia’s third-richest city are jointly conducting a study to

build an LNG receiving terminal that could be anchored off its coast. Units of Power Assets Holdings

Ltd., owned by billionaire Li Ka-Shing, and CLP Holdings Ltd., owned by fellow Hong Kong billionaire

Michael Kadoorie, are aiming to have the terminal operating by the end of 2020, according to a CLP

spokesman.

Offshore terminals are among the hottest assets in energy. Known as floating storage and

regasification units, they allow buyers fast access to an over-supplied LNG market that has pushed

down spot prices in Asia by more than half since October 2014. Greater LNG imports could help

Hong Kong reduce its reliance on coal and reach its goal of increasing the proportion of natural gas in

its energy mix to about 50 percent by 2020.

“To further reduce our reliance on coal, HK Electric is partnering with another energy company in

the city to study the feasibility of building an offshore liquefied natural gas terminal using floating

storage and regasification unit technology in Hong Kong,” Canning Fok, Power Assets chairman, said

in a written statement accompanying the company’s second-quarter earnings. “If the project

receives government approval, the terminal will improve HK Electric’s access to and negotiating

power in the natural gas market as well as the security of supply.”

CLP is leading the development of the project, a company spokesman said. The companies are

conducting an environmental impact assessment, which will take 12 to 18 months to complete. It

would then apply for government approval and make a final investment decision, with construction

projected to start in 2019.

FSRUs can be built faster than land-based LNG terminals, and are typically smaller. Being moored at

sea is a benefit in Hong Kong, where demand for available land is high, CPR said in a May report. CPR

is focusing on an area in open water south of Lantau Island, which would be connected to power

plants on Hong Kong Island and the New Territories by subsea pipelines. It hasn’t determined the

size of the project yet.

Hong Kong generated about 53 percent of its power from coal as of 2012, compared with about 22

percent each for nuclear and natural gas, according to its Environmental Protection Department,

which is behind the 2020 goal.

Energy companies adding LNG export plants in places like Australia and the U.S. have helped push

down the price of spot LNG in Singapore from more than $14 per million British thermal units in

October 2014 to $5.65 this week. Spot prices will fall to $3.80 by 2018 as more production capacity

comes online, BMI Research said in a July 12 research note.

NGS INDIA