Maintenance at Bintulu's complex in Malaysia leads to slowing of loadings and exports
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday that two terminals at Petronas’ Bintulu LNG plant are being maintained. This is slowing down shipments out of Asia’s largest LNG exporting complex.
MLNG Satu is scheduled to restart operations on 24 May, while MLNG Dua resumes operations on 26 May. This will allow MLNG Tiga's production to reach its full potential.
The Malaysian state-owned Petroliam Nasional (or Petronas) controls the LNG complex, which is made up of nine LNG trains operated by four operators. It has a capacity of 30 million tons of LNG per year.
According to data from Kpler & LSEG, at least ten LNG tanks are waiting to be loaded at the Bintulu Terminal, and loadings had been halted at the plant for at least 9 days in this month.
Data also revealed that there were no loadings on May 8, 10, 13, 16, 17 and 20. Comparatively speaking, loadings occurred almost every day in the month of March.
Three of the ten tanks waiting in Bintulu - Seri Balhaf Puteri Nilam Seri Anggun – had respective initial loading dates of May 9, 13, and 14.
A source in the industry said that this month, loadings have slowed.
In April, the Bintulu LNG Complex experienced production problems at its MLNG Satu & Dua terminals. Petronas said that the rectification of production issues and startup activities was in progress.
Petronas didn't immediately respond to an inquiry for comment.
(source: Reuters)
