Japan Marks 50 years of LNG Imports
Japanese gas buyers on Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary since the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived in Japan, now the world's biggest importer of the fuel.The arrival of the cargo on Nov. 4, 1969 helped transform Japan's energy system, which had relied on oil, coal and gas from coal in an era of high growth, before nuclear power was developed.But Japan's energy situation is undergoing huge changes in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, which…
New LNG Import Terminal Planned at Port Kembla
A consortium including Japan's JERA Co and Marubeni Corp aiming to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Australia's east coast has chosen a site south of Sydney at Port Kembla for an import terminal, it said on Monday.The project will allow access to a new gas supply for local industries in New South Wales state by 2020, the consortium, Australian Industrial Energy (AIE), said in a statement.AIE also includes iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest's Squadron Energy. Top global LNG buyer…
Freeport LNG Delays Start of Texas Export Terminal
Freeport LNG, a privately held U.S. liquefied natural gas company, said on Thursday it pushed back the projected start date for its $13 billion export terminal under construction in Texas by about nine months to around Sept. 1, 2019.Freeport LNG now expects the first liquefaction train to enter service around Sept. 1, 2019, with the second and third trains seen in service around Jan. 1 and May 1, 2020, respectively, said Zdenek Gerych, a spokesman at Freeport.Previously, the three…
World’s Biggest LNG Buyer Becomes Seller
EDF Trading, a wholly-owned subsidiary of French power giant EDF, has signed an LNG sales and purchase agreement with Japanese LNG aggregator Jera Co Inc, one of the world’s largest buyers of liquefied natural gas. Jera, a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric Power Co., will sell as much as 1.5 million metric tons of LNG between June 2018 and December 2020. According to Bloomberg, Jera’s debut as a seller to Europe underscores how the oversupplied market has challenged traditional exporters, who have relied on steady, one-way demand from buyers in countries like Japan, the world’s largest consumer of the fuel. Japan’s new role as a middleman adds further pressure on LNG producers, who are losing bargaining power because of the glut.
Anadarko in Talks with Jera for Mozambique LNG Deal
Anadarko Petroleum is in talks with newly formed Japanese joint-venture vehicle Jera, set to become the world's biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), to sell long-term supply from its Mozambique export scheme. The U.S. oil major's gas finds in Area 1 of Mozambique's Rovuma Basin will feed the initial 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), $23 billion LNG export project, which is due to start by 2021. Jera is a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) and Chubu Electric, Japan's biggest and third-biggest utilities, set up in April with an aim to become the cheapest LNG buyer in East Asia. Anadarko and Jera are in talks over a long-term gas import deal, three industry sources said.
Tepco, Chubu Buying 6 LNG cargoes from Vitol
Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Co and Chubu Electric Power Co,, are expected to buy a total of six cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Vitol and GDF Suez in their first joint tender, three traders said on Friday. "They are waiting for the government to confirm," one of the traders said. Vitol and GDF Suez are expected to supply three cargoes each, the traders said. This is the first time the Japanese utilities have jointly tendered for LNG, aiming to reduce procurement costs for two of the world's biggest LNG buyers. "It's unusual in Japan for two big companies to approach jointly a tender, usually what they do is they don't even tender, they just talk to their suppliers," a trader said.
First PNG LNG Cargo Shipped by Exxon Mobil
Exxon Mobil Corporatio says it has shipped the first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the $19 billion PNG (Papua New Guinea) LNG project ahead of schedule. PNG LNG, operated by ExxonMobil affiliate ExxonMobil PNG Limited, is expected to produce more than 9 trillion cubic feet of gas over its estimated 30 years of operations. The first cargo is bound for LNG customer Tokyo Electric Power Co. Inc. (TEPCO) in Japan. Production from the first train started in April, 2014, and production from the second train has also started as additional wells came online. Construction of PNG LNG began in 2010, and took more than 190 million work hours to complete. At its peak, the project employed more than 21,000 people.
Floating Windmills in Japan Help Wind Down Nuclear Power
Japan is preparing to bolt turbines onto barges and build the world’s largest commercial power plant using floating windmills, tackling the engineering challenges of an unproven technology to cut its reliance on atomic energy. Marubeni Corp., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel Corp. are among developers erecting a 16-megawatt pilot plant off the coast of Fukushima, site of the nuclear accident which pushed the government to pursue cleaner energy. The project may be expanded to 1,000 megawatts, the trade ministry said, larger than any wind farm fixed to the seabed or on land. “Japan is surrounded by deep oceans, and this poses challenges to offshore wind turbines attached to the bottom of the sea…
Shipping Disruptions: Japan Battles Back
Japan is waging a public relations war as it struggles to control the nuclear contamination threat at home while playing down the concerns of consumers abroad. Fears of tainted goods from the battered nation are affecting trade flows, with regional weather distributing radiation particles and hysteria across Asia. In South Korea, panic over radioactive rain in March saw schools shut down en masse, despite the minute level of radiation posing no known health risks. In Hong Kong in April…
Tokyo Electric’s LNG Purchases Rise
According to a report from Bloomberg, Tokyo Electric Power Co. purchased a record amount of liquefied natural gas in March after two of the utility’s nuclear power plants were crippled by an earthquake and tsunami. The utility, known as Tepco, bought 2.14 million metric tons of LNG in March, up 9.9 percent from a year earlier. (Source: Bloomberg)
Controversial Nuclear Cargo Ship Docks In Japan
An armed British ship carrying recycled nuclear fuel docked on Japan's northeast coast early last week after a two-month voyage from Europe that sparked protests by environmentalists and raised security fears. Activists from environmental group Greenpeace, riding in inflatable boats, met the Pacific Teal as the cargo ship docked early Monday morning at Okuma, about 160 miles north of Tokyo. It had been delayed for five days by bad weather. The Pacific Pintail, a second armed British ship also carrying nuclear fuel, remained offshore to wait for the Pacific Teal to unload before they both headed north down the Sea of Japan to their destination at Fukui.
Controversial Fuel To Reach Port Soon
A nuclear fuel shipment to Japan that has stirred up protests by environmentalists is expected to reach port aboard two British cargo ships on Sept. 22, according to Japanese media sources. The ships, carrying MOX fuel, a mixture of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel, will arrive at a port near the city of Iwaki, about 130 miles north of Tokyo. The armed British cargo ship Pacific Teal left the French port of Cherbourg on July 21 and subsequently linked up with the Pacific Pintail, its sister ship, for the journey to Japan. The Pacific Pintail had been loaded with MOX from Britain's Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant.
