Australian Industrial Energy has secured the country’s first floating LNG import ship which could help lift pressure on the forecast gas shortage in 2020.
Norwegian firm Hoegh LNG – one of the largest global suppliers of floating regasification units – has signed an agreement with AIE to bring a floating import terminal to Port Kembla in NSW. This new agreement puts AIE on the path to have new gas pumping into NSW and Victoria in 2020.
The floating terminal will take imported LNG, re-gasify it, and inject it into pipelines that will transport it to the east coast gas network 10 kilometres away.
“This [ship] is the heart and soul of the import terminal project,” AIE chief executive James Baulderstone told Fairfax Media.
Under the agreement, AIE will lease one of the 300-metre long vessels, which will be permanently moored in Port Kembla’s inner harbour.