GUANGDONG Dapeng LNG Co, China's only LNG facility, may double purchases of individual liquefied natural gas this year, a company official said.
The terminal, a venture between China National Offshore Oil Corp and BP Plc, bought seven individual cargoes for immediate delivery last year, Thomas King, president of Guangdong Dapeng LNG, said yesterday. The company is in talks to buy additional LNG on multiyear terms as it increases import terminal capacity to nine million metric tons a year by mid-2009, he said.
China, which imports LNG under a multiyear contract with Australia, has halted spot purchases since November because prices climbed during the northern winter, said Bloomberg News. Utilities in Japan and South Korea paid as much as US$20 per million British thermal units this winter, more than double the United States benchmark at Henry Hub, Louisiana.