CAPITAL: Taipei

MONETARY UNIT: New Taiwan Dollar

REFINING CAPACITY: 770,000 b/cd

OIL PRODUCTION: 1,000 b/d

OIL RESERVES: 4 million bbl

GAS RESERVES: 2.7 tcf

Mobil Corp. planned to build a $700 million LNG receiving terminal off the northern coast of Taiwan, a project that would be the largest foreign investment in Taiwan`s petroleum sector.

It had completed feasibility and environmental studies and had applied to the Ministry of Economic Affairs for licensing and construction permits.

The terminal would incorporate a modified version of the gravity-based-system platform used in oil and gas production. It would be built elsewhere, and towed to a site in at least 20 m of water. The project would require the laying of 2-3 km of subsea pipeline.

Upon start-up, the terminal would have capacity of about 3 million metric tons/year of LNG, which would come from Qatar.

Customers were expected to be power-generating facilities under construction or planned for northern Taiwan, including Taiwan Power Co.`s 4,000-MW Tatan plant, which would require 1.9-2.0 million tons/year of LNG.

Other companies also were considering filing applications to build competing LNG terminals.

Taiwan state monopoly Chinese Petroleum Corp. was discussing the potential for oil and gas exports to mainland China as well as joint offshore exploration.

CPA had signed a pact in 1996 with Chinese National Offshore Oil Corp. for joint exploration of a 15,400-sq-km tract between the center of the Taiwan Strait and the Pearl River delta near Hong Kong.

Taiwan had forbidden direct investment and trade with the mainland but allowed an exception for CPC, which was under close government supervision.