Natural gas is the third largest source of primary energy following coal and oil. LNG is odourless, non-toxic and non-corrosive, and is considered a versatile and environmentally acceptable alternative fuel.

By far, the greatest use of natural gas is to fuel electric power plants. Natural gas is also used for industrial and domestic uses and also as a substitute for petrol and diesel for motor vehicles.

In the 1960's, gas liquefaction technology was developed to transport natural gas over long distances. LNG is approximately 600 times lower in volume than an equivalent amount of natural gas at atmospheric pressure. This makes liquefaction the preferred method to transport gas over long distances.

Brunei Darussalam’s economy is highly dependent on the oil and gas industry with one of its main export being LNG. Brunei Darussalam ranks as the third largest producer in South East Asia.

Domestic consumption for natural gas merely accounts for 15% of the total amount. The rest is liquefied and exported by Brunei LNG Sdn Bhd (BLNG) to its buyers, namely Japan and South Korea.

The chain starts with gas production. Natural Gas extracted from the country’s gas field is transported via a pipeline to BLNG’s liquefaction complex. The piped gas goes through several steps of treating before being liquiefied.

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is created by cooling the natural gas to -162 degrees Celcius. When liquefied, the gas is reduced to 1/600th of its original volume making it possible to transport the gas economically before loading the cargo onto an LNG vessel ready for delivery to its customers.

The LNG carrier then transports LNG to its designated customers in Japan and South Korea. A round trip voyage (Brunei to Japan / South Korea and back) takes about 14 days. The time it takes to load a ship once the loading pumps are started is approximately between 14 to 20 hours.

The LNG ships discharges at the receiving terminals using their cargo pumps. LNG, being in its liquefied form, is not directly useable. It must first be converted back to gas. LNG is regasified in stages – first, converting the liquid back to gas and then warming the gas to its ambient temperature.

The natural gas is then transported away to electric power plants to generate power to end-users.