Taiwan’s natural gas supply remains stable through the end of May, despite rising concerns about potential disruptions to Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies due to escalating conflicts in the Middle East, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan has completed preparations for natural gas supply and shipping schedules through the end of May.
It has also made plans to increase natural gas imports from regions outside the Middle East in June to ensure a stable supply, it added.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Taiwan sources natural gas from 14 countries and is not solely dependent on the Middle East, the ministry said.
In response to heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) has further expanded its allocation of gas sources outside the Middle East to ensure sufficient gas supply, it said.
“There is absolutely no natural gas shortage crisis as reported by foreign media,” the ministry said.
The remarks came after the Financial Times on Sunday reported that the Middle East’s LNG supplies would abruptly end within 10 days, when final tankers from the region reach their destinations.
The report warned of a potential “cliff edge” in the global natural gas supply, which would affect countries like Taiwan that are highly dependent on the region’s energy supplies.
Taiwan sources about one-third of its natural gas from Qatar. In June 2024, CPC signed a 27-year LNG supply deal with QatarEnergy to secure long-term supplies.
However, the emirate’s state-run energy firm last week said it could declare force majeure on long-term supply contracts following attacks by Iran on its major LNG facilities in Ras Laffan, and that it would take years to repair some of them.
The ministry yesterday said that it has established an energy response team to conduct daily inventory checks and dispatches on natural gas.
The nation’s natural gas stockpiles are above the legally mandated minimum, which ensures that domestic gas and power supplies remain secure, it said.
Global LNG exports have fallen to a six-month low, with the 10-day moving average for LNG shipments down about 20 percent from the start of this month to 1.1 million tonnes, a Bloomberg analysis of ship-tracking data on Kpler showed.
The drop is primarily from Qatar — and to a lesser extent the United Arab Emirates — due to Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for about one-fifth of global LNG flows, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
RSS