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Tokyo Gas clinches two LNG deals
JAPAN
TOKYO Gas has reached two separate deals on lique ed natural gas (LNG) supply with Sumi- tomo Joint Electric Power and Royal Dutch Shell.
e Japanese utility said on June 19 that it had signed a heads of agreement (HoA) to sell 170,000 tonnes per year (t/y) of LNG to Sum- itomo Joint Electric for ve years. e supply deal, which uses an ex-ship delivery framework, will start in nancial year 2021, which will begin on April 1.
Tokyo Gas said it would source the LNG from those projects it has already agreed on supply contracts.
The deal, which is Tokyo Gas’ third LNG wholesale agreement using ex-ship terms, came hot on the heels of Shell’s announcement on June 18 that it had agreed to deliver a single cargo of carbon-neutral LNG to Tokyo Gas. e cargo will be delivered by July 2019.
The Anglo-Dutch super-major said it had reached a similar deal with GS Energy, while declining to reveal the size or price of either
cargo.
Shell said nature-based carbon credits would
be used to o set all of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated during the exploration, pro- duction, delivery and consumption of the gas.
Commenting on the agreement, Tokyo Gas managing executive officer Kentaro Kimoto said: “In addition to the widespread expansion of natural gas, with its character of having the least CO2 emission among fossil fuels, we will continue our effort to realise the low carbon society as well as providing a new value to our customers by introducing carbon-neutral LNG as a new e ort.”
e carbon-neutral LNG supply agreement is the rst in its kind and comes a couple of months a er Tokyo Gas and Shell announced a er sup- ply rst. Two said in April that they had signed a 10-year supply deal that partly uses a coal-linked pricing formula. Under the terms of the deal Shell will supply the utility with 500,000 t/y from its global LNG supply network.™
LNG import volumes to Asia fall in first five months
ASIA
ASIA’S top three importers, Japan, China and South Korea, imported 12.97mn tonnes of LNG in May, data from the three states show. is is down marginally from the 13.33mn tonnes imported in the same month of 2018. e total imported over the rst ve months of the year by the three countries reached 74.04mn tonnes, down from 75.41mn tonnes in the same period of 2018.
The cost of imports in May was $6.16bn, down from $6.55bn year on year. e total cost over the January to May period was $39.9bn, up from $35.78bn.
Japan imported 5.57mn tonnes in May, down from 6.41mn tonnes in 2018. e coun- try’s customs data reveal that 131,000 tonnes came from the US, 1.37mn tonnes came from Asian states, 793,000 tonnes from the Mid- dle East and 534,000 tonnes from Russia.
Asian, US and Middle Eastern supplies were down from the previous month, while Russia increased volumes.
Volumes from the Middle East made a sig- nificant decrease from May 2018, when sup- plies were 1.44mn tonnes. During the rst ve months of 2018, this area provided 7.94mn tonnes to Japan, but had fallen to 6.09mn in the same period of 2019.
China imported 4.43mn tonnes in May, according to its customs data, released this week. is is an increase from 2018, when it received 4.15mn tonnes in May, and from 2017, when it received 2.91mn tonnes.
Every month this year has seen China import more LNG than it did in the respective month in 2018. e total volume in 2019, thus far, reached 23.96mn tonnes, from 19.96mn tonnes in 2018.
South Korea imported 2.97mn tonnes in
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