Asia's future LNG import projects put on ice as industry recalibrates

摘要

Asia’s pipeline of new LNG import projects has stalled amid ongoing industry turbulence as fundamental assumptions that underpinned the projects — gas supply, power demand and financing — have to be recalibrated from scratch. The projects span the Southeast Asian countries of Vietnam, the Philippines and Myanmar — which were billed as the next batch of LNG importing countries — and existing importers like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Asian nations who have been expanding gas import capacity. These projects were meant to usher in the next wave of LNG demand, based off economic growth and electricity demand projections in the pre-COVID 19 era. Most of these growth assumptions have either been totally dismantled or delayed by several years. “It’s obvious to expect delays in the short-term, [and give] time for players to figure out and adjust during this time of crisis,” Christophe Malet, senior vice president for upstream and midstream LNG at Chinese gas and renewables company Hanas, said. “Developers will need to establish how much of the initial projected demand and bankability plus financing assumptions they can still rely on,” Malet said. He said financing will become tougher in the short-term as lenders sort out their priorities in the current crisis, with the exception of some policy-driven stimulus packages.