- DOHA: Qatargas will supply more than 60 extra cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG), or four million tons, to Japan over next 12 months, the company said.
“These additional cargoes of LNG will be supplied to a number of our long-term customers over the next 12 months,” Qatargas CEO Khalid bin Khalifa Al-Thani said in a statement after returning from Japan.
“The first of these cargoes was discharged whilst I was still in Japan, and I anticipate further sales.”
A Qatargas spokeswoman said all the LNG would be supplied from Qatar but would not impact the company’s current sales portfolio.
Various Japanese power companies receive LNG from Qatargas at fourteen different terminals. Chubu Electric Power Co is the largest Japanese customer, according to the Qatargas website.
n earthquake and tsunami on March 11 knocked out more than 9 gigawatts of Japanese nuclear power supply, increasing fuel import needs in the world’s third largest economy.
Since the quake, LNG producers across the Pacific have increased LNG exports to Japan, which analysts say may need an extra one billion cubic feet per day of LNG this year to make up for the shortfall in nuclear power supply. That amounts to about an extra cargo every three days.