Vietnam Receives Commissioning Cargo At Second LNG Import Terminal

Vietnam’s second liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal at Cai Mep has received its commissioning cargo from Russia, marking the country’s first-ever LNG supply from the Russian producer.

According to data from ship tracking firms LSEG and Kpler, the cargo was loaded at Russia’s Sakhalin 2 LNG plant on April 10. It was transported aboard the LNG carrier Blue Dragon 1, which arrived at the Cai Mep terminal on May 25.

The vessel, with a capacity of 145,819 cubic meters, is a steamship built in 2006 and was previously known as Stena Blue Sky. It was delivered by Stena Bulk in April 2024 to its new Vietnamese owner, who plans to use it for storage.

An industry source confirmed that the cargo was delivered for testing purposes, part of the commissioning process of the new terminal.

The Cai Mep LNG terminal, located in the southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province near the Mekong River delta, is a joint venture between Vietnamese petroleum trader Hai Linh Company and Singapore-based Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific LNG (AG&P LNG), which is under the control of Nebula Energy. The terminal is designed to handle 3 million metric tonnes per year (mtpa) of LNG and has been built with 220,000 cubic meters of storage capacity.

Initially, AG&P LNG had announced in August last year that it aimed to receive a commissioning cargo between October and November 2023. However, the company later issued a tender in May 2024 for a delivery window between August and September. The early arrival of the Russian cargo in May appears to have come ahead of the updated plans.

Despite this early delivery, the Cai Mep facility is still on track to become fully operational by the first quarter of 2026. An expansion is also being considered, which would double the terminal’s capacity in the future.

AG&P LNG and Hai Linh have also launched a downstream joint venture called Vietfirst Gas. This company will be responsible for distributing the imported LNG to customers across Vietnam.

Cai Mep is Vietnam’s second LNG terminal after Thi Vai LNG, which started operations in July 2023. The Thi Vai terminal, operated by PetroVietnam, first received LNG from Indonesia and has since imported cargoes from Qatar, Malaysia, and Brunei.

References: gasprocessingnews, reuters