Japex eyes extra 200,000 mt LNG in 2020-21 as Fukushima gas power plant starts up

Tokyo — Japan Petroleum Exploration expects to require about 200,000 mt of additional LNG in fiscal year 2020-2021 (April-March), following the commercial startup of the 1.18 GW Fukushima Natural Gas Power Plant, in which it holds a 33% stake.

Japex started commercial operations at the plant's second 590 MW combined cycle gas turbine on Aug. 24, after starting up commercial operations at the first 590 MW unit on April 30.

In parallel with the start up of the second unit, the plant, which is located at Soma in Fukushima prefecture, has installed a 230,000 kl LNG storage tank and two 75 mt/hour regasification units for power generation.

These are in addition to one LNG storage tank and two regasification units of same capacities that were started in March 2018 for the startup of the Soma LNG terminal.

The plant would require about 1 million mt/year of LNG for power generation once it reaches full operation, according to a Japex spokeswoman.

Following the startup of the Fukushima gas power plant, Japex expects to require about 1.3 million mt of LNG equivalent of gas in the fiscal year to March 31, 2021, the Japex spokeswoman said.

The other stake holders of the 1.18 GW Fukushima gas power plant are: Mitsui with 29%; Osaka Gas (20%); Mitsubishi Gas Chemical (9%); and Hokkaido Electric Power Co. (9%).

Japex, which handled about 1.1 million mt of LNG equivalent of gas -- comprising imported LNG, domestic gas output and pipeline gas -- in fiscal 2019-20, expects its requirement of LNG equivalent of gas to increase to about 1.6 million mt in fiscal 2022-23, the Japex spokeswoman added.

Japex, which imports up to 480,000 mt/year of LNG from the Malaysia LNG Tiga project under a 20-year contract to 2022, sold 1.268 billion cubic meters of gas in Japan, of which 582 million cu m was produced in Japan. Japex sold 431 million cu m of gas abroad in fiscal 2019-20.