OREANDA-NEWS. September 25, 2012. Chinese demand for small liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers with capacities up to 50 thousand cubic meters (Mcm) is set to soar as the country ramps up LNG imports, a government researcher said in Shanghai.

Small tankers will be needed to shuttle imported LNG between coastal terminals or to inland satellite stations along waterways according to seasonal demand in the north and south, said Jiang Xinmin, deputy director of the Energy Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission.

China expects to import between 24 and 30 million tons (mt) by 2015, Jiang forecast at the 5th Annual China LNG Technology and Development Summit. The lower end of that estimate would be roughly double the 12.21 mt imported last year, which was up by 30 percent from 2010.

Chinese shipyards dominate the market for building simple dry bulk ships and oil tankers, but most lack the technology to build more complex vessels such as LNG carriers.

Only one Chinese shipyard, Nantong Mingde Heavy Industry Co. Ltd., has built LNG carriers to date, all of which have a storage capacity of 147 Mcm. Nantong Mingde, a privately-owned shipyard in Jiangsu Province, inked a strategic cooperation agreement with Cambridge Energy Group Ltd. in July to build up to 21 LNG carriers, 10 to 12 of which will be in the 20 to 40 Mcm-capacity class.

To foster small-scale LNG distribution, China needs to tackle some pressing issues that include a lack of design standards for unloading docks and tankers, and the absence of rules governing port management, according to Jiang.

As these issues are resolved, China will likely begin retrofitting ports originally built for liquefied petroleum gas tankers to serve LNG carriers, Jiang said, adding that shipyards would then be more apt to build tankers according to international standards and register them with foreign classification societies.

Chinese maritime regulations will also need to be revamped. Existing rules direct LNG carriers on inland waterways to maintain a minimum distance of 200 meters (m) from other vessels at the bow and stern, and 500 m for port and starboard, according to Wen Jiang, Vice-President of Kunlun Energy Co. Ltd.

Compliance with such a rule would be difficult on the Yangtze River, which is only one kilometer wide in places, Jiang said at the summit. The Yangtze, Asia’s longest river, is also heavily congested with barge traffic and other commercial vessels.

China National Offshore Oil Corp., the country’s top LNG importer, commissioned state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp. to design its first small-scale LNG carrier in May.