Rasgas, which does not have any long-term contracts with Japan, has supplied cargoes to fellow Qatar LNG producer Qatargas, which ships the super-cooled gas to the world’s top LNG importer on a regular basis.
“We have been supporting our sister company Qatargas in supplying LNG to Japan. From our side we have supplied them with a couple of cargoes,” Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, managing director at RasGas, told reporters on the sidelines of a Qatari investment conference in New York.
An 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.
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.
