Tokyo Gas Completes Hitachi LNG Terminal
Japan’s Tokyo Gas has completed construction of its Hitachi LNG terminal in Hitachi Port area marking the start of operations.
The LNG terminal is equipped with a 230,000-kilolitre LNG tank that can hold about 100,000-110,000 tons of chilled gas.
The Hitachi terminal has already received three cargoes this year, one from Malaysia's Bintulu and two from Russia's Sakhalin, says sources.
Hitachi terminal is company’s first LNG terminal, located outside Tokyo Bay. By completing Ibaraki-Tochigi line, Tokyo Gas now owns 950km of high pressure pipeline network mainly around Tokyo metropolitan area.
Tokyo Gas also said that it plans to build a new LNG tank at the Sodegaura LNG terminal on Tokyo Bay.
The 200,000-kl tank, slated to begin operations by March 2024, will be able to hold 92,000 tonnes of LNG, making it larger than two ageing tanks that are set to be demolished, a company spokesman said.
A major provider of natural gas to Tokyo and the surrounding regions, Tokyo Gas lowered its projected growth of total gas sales for the next five years to a little over 2 percent a year on average, taking into account the liberalisation of retail city gas sector starting from April 2017.