A vessel from Bintulu Port in Malaysia leaves Jiaxing in East China's Zhejiang province on July 21 after it unloaded its load of liquefied natural gas. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

A vessel from Bintulu Port in Malaysia left Jiaxing in East China's Zhejiang province on July 21 after it unloaded its load of liquefied natural gas. The vessel is the first LNG carrier to berth at Jiaxing LNG Terminal.

The Jiaxing LNG Terminal is the third LNG terminal to begin operating in Zhejiang province after the Ningbo LNG Terminal and Zhoushan LNG Terminal.

An aerial view of the Jiaxing LNG Terminal in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

The Jiaxing LNG Terminal is currently the only natural gas import facility and important energy guarantee facility in northern Zhejiang province.

The terminal was constructed by Jiaxing Gas Group Co Ltd and Hangzhou Gas Group Co Ltd. It started construction in March 2018 with a total investment of about 2.4 billion yuan ($354.6 million), including reservoir area engineering, wharf engineering and external pipeline engineering.

The terminal's wharf now has a 30,000 gross tonnage LNG unloading berth and a 5,000 gross tonnage LNG loading berth. Natural gas can be transported to the Yangtze River Delta region through LNG carriers, terminals, and natural gas pipeline networks.

The designed annual LNG handling capacity is 1 million metric tons, which is equivalent to replacing about 1.82 million tons of coal per year and is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 3.8 million tons annually.