“At the meeting, Gazprom officials said they were considering entry into the nation’s energy market and building a LNG terminal in Dong Nai,” said People’s Committee Vice Chairman Tran Van Vinh.

Vinh said LNG is simply an alternative method to transport methane from the producer to the consumer.

Gas converted to LNG can be transported by ship over long distances where pipelines are neither economic nor feasible. At the receiving location, liquid methane is offloaded from the ship and heated, allowing its physical phase to return from liquid to gas.

If a deal is reached, Gazprom will build a liquefied gas plant with an initial capacity of 250,000MT per year in the south to supply natural gas, but there are no firm plans yet for it.