Equinor to step up Asia-Pacific LPG activity

Equinor and Global Petro Storage (GPS) have entered into a long-term agreement for an LPG terminal and storage facility in Port Klang, Malaysia. GPS will build the facility, with operations planned to start up in mid-2021. Equinor will bring LPG sourced from the North Sea, North Africa, the Middle East and Australia to the terminal, and sell into Malaysia’s domestic market, as well as to markets such as Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Equinor is already a significant LPG player, claiming to account for some 10% of global waterborne LPG volumes. It plans to capture a larger share of the attractive LPG market in South-East Asia with this new deal.

 ‘Malaysia is an attractive market and we believe that we will be a competitive supplier to the wholesalers of LPG into the domestic market. The terminal and storage are also strategically located for blending and selling to other growing markets in the region,’ notes Molly Morris, Vice President for Products and Liquids in Equinor. 

As part of the agreement, Equinor will have an option to acquire an ownership share of the new storage and terminal facility, where Equinor will be the only user. ‘Flexibility and robustness have been some of our key drivers for entering in this agreement,’ comments Giuseppina Raone, Vice President for Manufacturing and Storage in Asset Management, Equinor. ‘The storage [facility] offers us considerable flexibility as it can receive gas tankers of all sizes and we can choose if we want to blend and prepare smaller quantities to deliver into the domestic market or other countries in the region, depending on which is most attractive. This way, active use of our assets can add value to our LPG business and be a long-term basis for value creation.’

Photo: Equinor