JX Nippon Oil, Petronas begin ops at 9th LNG train

TOKYO: JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp said its venture with Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has started commercial operations at the ninth liquefaction train at the Petronas LNG complex in Bintulu, Sarawak.

The train, with a production capacity of 3.6 million tonnes of LNG a year, started on Jan 1.

The launch of the ninth train comes at a time when US LNG exporters are sending tankers to Asia to fill a gap in the region’s demand as markets have tightened more than expected on surging consumption in China and Pakistan, and because of Australia’s struggles to ramp up production.

But still, the LNG market remains well supplied, with available LNG capacity standing 45% above demand last year, according to Reuters Eikon data.

JX Nippon Oil, a unit of Japan’s biggest oil refiner JX Holdings, last June bought a 10% equity stake in a Petronas subsidiary that was developing the ninth train in Sarawak.

With the launch of the ninth train, the Petronas LNG complex now has the capacity to produce about 30 million tonnes a year, JX said in a statement. – Reuters