Frontier LNG markets in Southeast Asia

13 million metric tons by 2030. That is the forecast of LNG demand into these frontier markets – Vietnam, Philippines and Myanmar. In our Tokyo Energy Briefing held on 2 February 2018, we delivered a presentation identifying these markets and the trends that could accelerate LNG developments.

In Vietnam, the price of domestic gas has always hindered the introduction of LNG but there are policies being introduced to change this. Favorable moves in the downstream sector will lead to better financial health of state-owned enterprises. This could propel higher upstream gas prices and perhaps increase the ability to afford LNG.

The Philippine National Oil Company has taken a more active role in its involvement to build an LNG terminal. However, financing has always been an issue and we evaluate the recent proposals to monetize its holdings of Malampaya gas reserves.

With the Myanmar government issuing a Notice-to-proceed for four gas-fired power plants with three linked to new regasification facilities, there is undoubtedly a renewed interest in finding new demand from emerging markets. We identify some of the obstacles that hinder the introduction of LNG and a potential partnership with Thailand that could solve these issues.

Learn more about our Southeast Asia power, gas, coal and renewables coverage.

Zhi Xin Chong is an associate director at IHS Markit.
Posted 9 February 2018

This article was published by S&P Global Commodity Insights and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.