Malaysia's Petronas targets China and Vietnam while looking for long-term LNG supplies

A Malaysian company, Petroliam Nasional or Petronas aims to increase its liquefied gas sales in markets like China and Vietnam, while also seeking to secure a more long-term supply of North America and emerging market markets.

Shamsairi Ibrahim, Vice President, LNG Marketing and Trading, responded to an email from a reader by saying that, "as part of its strategic growth plans, Petronas actively seeks to expand our LNG supplies into high-demand Asian markets, including China, Vietnam, and Vietnam."

These regions offer significant opportunities because of their rapid economic growth and growing energy needs.

Shamsairi stated that Petronas aims to work with China in other areas of lower-carbon energy including renewable energy and hydrogen. Other solutions include green mobility, ammonia and carbon capture and storage.

The Malaysian state-owned energy company also stated that it was keen to sign more long-term LNG deals in order to ensure stability and reliability for its customers.

Shamsairi added, "Petronas explores opportunities with sellers in diverse regions including North America and emerging markets to enhance our global network and meet our evolving customer needs."

Commonwealth LNG is in contact with several parties, to explore opportunities that are mutually beneficial.

Petronas previously stated that it could sell its supply of some U.S. contract oil on the spot market in Europe or Asia.

Last month, it was reported that Petronas has been in discussions with Commonwealth LNG about purchasing 1 million tonnes of fuel per year from its Cameron, Louisiana facility.

Commonwealth LNG announced in early May that it had signed a supply agreement with a major Asian company. However, the buyer was not named.

According to Kpler, Malaysia will be the fifth-largest LNG exporter by 2024. It shipped out 27,98 million metric tonnes of the chilled fuel in 2018. (Reporting and writing by Liz Lee in Beijing, Emily Chow in Singapore, and Sonali Paul in editing)

(source: Reuters)