SHANGHAI: China's Guangzhou Gas Group said on Wednesday the liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tank and jetty it's building on the southern coast in Guangzhou is expected to begin commercial operation by second-half 2022, with initial annual throughput of 1 million tonnes.

In slides presented at a gas conference in Shanghai, the company said it would begin issuing tenders to buy over 1 million tonnes per year of LNG for the medium and long term in 2021.

Local government-backed Guangzhou Gas, one of China's fast-growing players in the LNG sector outside the national state giants, had earlier planned to build a 2 million tonnes per year LNG terminal by 2020. 

Phase 1 of the terminal project on the southern coast includes building two 160,000 cubic metre LNG storage tanks, while Phase 2 includes building two 200,000 cubic metre LNG storage tanks, according to the presentation.

The jetty will be able to berth a 80,000 tonne LNG tanker.

(Reporting by Emily Chow; Writing by Shivani Singh; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) ((ShivaniSingh2@thomsonreuters.com; +861056692115; Reuters Messaging: shivanisingh2.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))