Petronas will order more LNG-tankers

June 22, 1997 Malaysia's oil corporation Petronas will finalise its deal by early next year to buy another 4 to 6 LNG tankers, its senior vice-president for corporate planning and development, Datuk Hamzah Bakar, said.
The national oil corporation has received tenders from several shipyards in countries like France and Japan to build the tankers, he told. The corporation now has 5 LNG tankers. The tanker is capable of carrying 130,294 tons of LNG and costs about $ 280 mm.
Hamzah said the plan to have more tankers is to meet the increasing transportation needs of the LNG industry, especially in view of the completion of the third Malaysia LNG (MLNG) plant in Bintulu, Sarawak, East Malaysia.
With the completion of the 15 billion ringgit (about $ 6 bn) plant by the year 2001, the MLNG complex in Bintulu will position Malaysia as the world's largest LNG producer from a single location with a total production of about 23 million tons per annum. The two existing plants, with a total investment of 30 billion ringgit (about $ 12 bn), currently have a production capacity of 16 million tons of LNG annually. To date, Petronas is the third largest LNG producer in the world, after Algeria and Indonesia.
The official said that about one-third of Petronas' earnings, which stood at $ 8.9 billion last year, is expected to come from the LNG business once the whole MLNG complex comes on stream by the year 2001.
Petronas has received inquiries from China, Thailand, the Philippines and India for LNG.