Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday.
While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said.
While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times — most notably by Japan in 2023. The US and Israeli attacks on Iran has upended the global gas market, triggering a wider conflict that has forced Qatar to close the world’s largest LNG export plant. About one-third of Taiwan’s LNG came from Qatar last year.
Photo: Cheng I-hwa, AFP
If Taiwan were to set up strategic reserves, “we must make sure those materials can be imported into Taiwan,” even if there are hostilities with China, Chen said.
Taiwan has about 11 days of LNG reserve onshore and plans to extend that to 14 days starting next year, he said. The long term goal would be to expand domestic stockpiles, provided exploration sites could be identified and the right environmental protections are put in place, he added.
Taiwan is making it a priority to shift away from the Middle East for its LNG imports, targeting 25 percent shipments from the US by 2029 from 10 percent today, Chen said, adding that there are also pans to increase purchases from Australia.
Taiwan imported one-third of its LNG from Australia last year.
Global LNG supply has been badly hampered by the war in Iran, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz cutting the world off from about one-fifth of the total.
Asian LNG imports fell the most in more than three years last month as natural gas deliveries to the region declined 8.6 percent from a year earlier to about 20.6 million tonnes, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed. That is the biggest drop since December 2022.
The region has been scrambling to seek alternative sources of energy, with countries including Bangladesh, India and Japan flocking back to coal, while in Vietnam, Vingroup JSC asked the government to allow it to replace an LNG project with renewable energy.
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