Regional LNG: LNG Japan Corp. may establish Asia?s 1st LNG trading platform: Report
Friday, October 27 2006 - 02:16 AM WIB
New trading tools may allow more participants into a market that?s been dominated by producers and users and help Japan to meet its future energy needs, Toshiki Miyazawa of LNG Japan said at the fifth annual Fortis Energy Forum in Singapore.
Japan, which imported 57 million metric tons of LNG in 2005, buys most of it gas on long-term contracts. Until now, the scale of investment and a lack of liquidity have kept LNG trading in the hands of companies with access to reserves, cargoes, fleets and processing facilities.
?Government deregulation will pave the way for more participants to enter the market, creating liquidity,? said Miyazawa. Japan buys most of its LNG from Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia on contracts.
The company plans to turn its Web site LNG OneWorld into a trading platform, Miyazawa, manager of the company?s Indonesia LNG Department, said Thursday. He declined to say when the trading site will start.
?There is a lot of growth potential for LNG in Japan,? he said. ?The rise of spot LNG trading is a good thing for the industry.?
Natural gas supplies 14 percent of the country?s energy needs, compared with 25 percent in the U.S., and an average of 23 percent in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED) countries.
Japan?s import demand is expected to grow 40 percent to about 80 million metric tons by 2020 as utilities switch from burning fuel oil, Miyazawa said.
LNG Japan, a joint-venture between Sumitomo Corp. and Sojitz Corp., supplies to nine customers including Chubu Electric Power Co., Tokyo Gas Co. and Nippon Steel Corp. (*)