Korea Gas bought 230,000 tons LNG from Tokyo, Kansai Electric: Report
Monday, February 3 2003 - 03:22 AM WIB
Tokyo Electric, Japan's biggest utility sold 60,000 tons of Malaysian LNG to Korea Gas for the first time, said company spokesman Takashi Nakayama, confirming an earlier report on Asahi Shinbun newspaper.
Tokyo Electric sold the fuel to Korea Gas ?from a humanitarian viewpoint,? Nakayama said. The LNG tanker departed for Korea on Jan. 24.
Tokyo Electric, which plans to fire up more gas- and oil- fired thermal power plants after shutdowns of nuclear power generators, was able to spare the LNG for Korea as the Japanese utility bought enough of the fuel for February. Korea Gas will return the same amount of the fuel to Tokyo Electric, Nakayama said without specifying when.
Korea Gas also bought 170,000 tons of LNG via Kansai Electric in December and January, said Yoshinao Inoue, a manager at Tokyo office of Japan's second utility said. The Japanese company has enough LNG reserves for the winter, he said.
Korea Gas has also asked Chubu Electric Power Co. to sell LNG. Japan's third-biggest utility ''has been discussing whether to sell the fuel to Korea Gas,'' said Toshiaki Inoue, a section manager at Chubu's Tokyo office.
Korea Gas, still facing a shortage after buying 40 cargoes of LNG, bought three Algerian cargoes of LNG from Gaz de France at a price 10 percent higher than average prices in the spot market for individual cargoes, Tex Report's Daily Energy edition reported last month. The sale was the first to Asia by the North African country since 1990, Tex said.
Indonesia, the world's biggest LNG producer, last month said it has no surplus to meet additional demand from South Korea this year. Japan is buying more LNG after closing nuclear plants, creating a shortage. Korea Gas asked for an additional nine LNG cargoes, Indonesia's state oil company Pertamina said. (*)