Regional LNG: Japan's Cosmo Oil to build LNG terminal
Wednesday, January 28 2004 - 09:35 AM WIB
Cosmo Oil plans to start receiving and regassificating LNG in 2010, the refiner said in a statement. The regassificated fuel will be supplied to Shikoku Electric's gas-fired power plant, also in Sakaide, Kagawa prefecture.
LNG is a natural gas that is chilled and turned into liquid form at near atmospheric pressure. Regassification is the process by which LNG in vaporised back to its gaseous form.
The total investment, which includes upgrades to Shikoku Electric's power generators, was estimated at 70 billion yen ($663 million), a Cosmo Oil spokesman said.
The companies would decide on an LNG supplier in the next two or three years, a Tokyo-based Shikoku Electric spokesman said.
The companies have not started talks with any LNG project operators to supply the Sakaide terminal, the Shikoku Electric spokesman said.
Shikoku Electric now runs four oil- and coal-fired thermal power generators. The utility will replace one generator with a new gas-fired thermal power generator and convert another unit to gas.
The utility, which supplies power to 2.86 million customers on the southwest island of Shikoku, does not have any gas-fired thermal power generators.
Cosmo Oil runs four refineries with a combined capacity of 595,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to the company's Web site, making it the nation's third biggest refiner by refining capacity after Nippon Oil Corp and unlisted Idemitsu Co.
The refiner will tear down three 130,000-kilolitre (kl) crude oil tanks at the Sakaide refinery to build such facilities as an LNG tank that can hold 180,000 kl of LNG, a regassification unit and shipping facilities.
In June 2003, Cosmo Oil said it would cut its refining capacity at the Sakaide plant by 30,000 bpd to 90,000 bpd starting later this year. ($1=105.59 yen) (*)