2010, however, it was clear that this capacity was
inadequate. At that point, the government asked
SLNG to expand the project to include a third storage tank, a second jetty and additional facilities to
increase the terminal’s processing capacity to 6 million tonnes—all of which translated to a 40 percent
increase in scope.
“These expansions were required to provide additional energy security to meet future domestic gas
needs, and also to pursue new business opportunities in the regional LNG market,” says Peter Wood,
vice president, projects and development, SLNG,
Singapore. “We were in effect executing three projects with three different completion dates in parallel.” The first phase comprised the project’s original
scope, the middle phase delivered the additional
terminal and the final phase was the additional jetty.
Proactive planning helped the team juggle these
phases of the SGD1.7 billion project without dropping any balls. Fortunately, because the team recognized the potential need for expansion at the outset,
it had designed the facility to be easily updated to
meet growing demand.
“Tie-ins and utilities for future expansions were
Although it is one of the world’s most highly devel-
oped economies, Singapore has a big vulnerability:
energy dependence. The city-state’s more than
5 million residents rely on imported natural gas for
90 percent of their electricity needs.
Lacking energy reserves of its own, Singapore has
long depended on pipeline imports from its neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia. With the island’s
power needs projected to rise, the Singapore government decided to act to more directly control its
fuel supply. It also saw a longer-term opportunity
to become a major trading hub for Asia’s growing
natural gas market. So in June 2009, it set up the
Singapore LNG Corporation Pte Ltd. (SLNG) to
develop, build, own and operate Singapore’s first
liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.
To deliver on its strategic goals, SLNG had to
successfully plan and execute a terminal project
that would accommodate the world’s largest LNG
vessels. (Natural gas is liquefied for storage and
transport.) It began with a plan to build two storage tanks and a jetty for ship docking, in addition
to regasification facilities that could process 3. 5
million tonnes per annum of LNG. By November
“Expansions were
required to provide
additional energy
security to meet
future domestic gas
needs, and also to
pursue new business
opportunities in the
regional market.”
—Peter Wood, SLNG, Singapore
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