Milestone shows Dapeng LNG terminal's role in energy security

China National Offshore Oil Corp's Dapeng liquefied natural gas terminal, located in Guangdong province, hit a milestone of supplying over 100 million metric tons of the chilled fuel since its launch in 2016, which has further ensured domestic energy security while facilitating the country's green energy transition, said industry analysts.

The facility, with a design capacity of 6.8 million tons per year, delivers natural gas through a 444-kilometer pipeline to the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Huizhou, Dongguan, Foshan and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said the company.

It has become the country's first LNG terminal with an accumulated LNG import exceeding 100 million tons, or 140 billion cubic meters of natural gas, which can help reduce 350 million tons of carbon dioxide and 3.2 million tons of sulfur dioxide compared with the consumption of coal, it said.

An analyst said China has come up with a complete LNG engineering construction capability in recent years, ranging from liquefaction to regasification onshore and offshore.

Domestic companies, including CNOOC, has been strengthening the core technology research and development of LNG industry over the years, further promoting China's energy structure transformation, said Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University.

The Dapeng LNG terminal is expected to continue providing stable and clean power generation fuel to southern parts of China to increase the proportion of clean energy in the regions, he said.

As the country's first pilot project for LNG imports, the Dapeng LNG terminal has ensured power and gas demand for 70 million residents since its launch in 2016. Imported natural gas accounted for 40 percent of the total natural gas supply to Guangdong province, and 30 percent for Hong Kong, it said.

The Dapeng LNG terminal also received the unloading of China's first cross-border yuan-settled LNG trade in May, after CNOOC's LNG carrier Marweh, carried some 65,000 tons of LNG from the United Arab Emirates and finished unloading at its receiving station on May 16, marking a substantial step forward in China's exploration of cross-border yuan settlement transactions in oil and gas.

China imported over 500 million tons of crude oil and over 100 million tons of natural gas last year, with LNG imports reaching 63.44 million tons, data from the General Administration of Customs show.

The Dapeng LNG terminal supplied 865,000 tons of LNG in May, near an all-time high for this time of year. Gas supply reached 37,400 tons on May 31, setting a new single-day record.