Thailand state-run power company Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has issued a Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) for interested parties to bid to supply 0.8 to 1.5 Mt/year of LNG over a 4-8 year period, starting from March 2019.
The utility has traditionally purchased natural gas from the state oil and gas firm PTT but has since received government approval to access up to 1.5 Mt/year of LNG regasification capacity at PTT's Map Ta Phut LNG receiving terminal between 2019 and 2056. EGAT expects to finalize the terminal user agreement for third party access by December 2018, sign a sales and purchase agreement by February 2019 and plans to receive its first LNG cargo by March 2019.
EGAT is also planning to build a new 5 Mt/year floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), which is expected to start operations by 2024, and has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for LNG supplies from Qatargas.