China will build at least 30 tankers over the next decade to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) from abroad to feed its energy needs, an industry official said.

Although China’s first-ever LNG tanker will not be delivered until the end of 2007, its shipyards will be able to build more than 10 tankers annually by 2015, Yan Weiping, general manager of the China LNG Shipping (Holdings) Ltd told an industry conference.
Each tanker will cost about $160 million, Yan said. The government has decided to allow three domestic oil majors, CNOOC, PetroChina and Sinopec, to build 10 or 11 LNG terminals along the coast, with total capacity of around 30 million tonnes by 2010.
The first terminal for LNG will start operation in the middle of next year in Guangdong.
British oil major BP holds a 30 per cent stake in the terminal, which has an initial capacity of 3.7 million tonnes a year.
Before the first China-made LNG ship is in use, Australia LNG Pty Ltd, the gas provider to the Guangdong terminal, would offer tankers to meet requirements until 2007, Yan said.
Almost all the tankers will be built domestically, even though Chinese shipyards have little technical and commercial experience and lack well-trained staff, he said.
“The government wants to take this opportunity to raise the competitiveness of China’s ship-building industry. Unless it is really necessary, the government will not allow foreign firms to build its LNG tankers,” he said.