Page 7 - GLNG Week 42 2022

GLNG ASIA GLNG

Japan takes steps to

support energy security

PROJECTS JAPAN’S government has proposed a series of Russian government has seized.
measures to safeguard against disruptions in Japan is also looking to permit state-owned
LNG supply over the coming months, as the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOG-
global energy crisis rolls on, exacerbated by the MEC) to directly import LNG on behalf of util-
Russia-Ukraine conflict. ities in an emergency. The company has already
One of the measures would see the govern- been allowed to import liquid fuels on behalf
ment’s industry ministry step in to redirect LNG of utilities. Regulation will be revised later this
supplies to where they are needed in the event of month to cover LNG supplies as well.
an emergency, so that gas and power companies The Russia-Ukraine conflict has clearly tight-
do not run out of the fuel. A new framework will ened the global gas market considerably, with
be introduced to facilitate this. Russian supplies to Europe now at an all-time
Under the plan, the ministry would serve as low. But another factor over the past year has
an intermediary to deliver LNG from operators been supply outages at some major LNG export
with sufficient gas in stock to those without it, plants, including the Freeport LNG facility in the
acting on the requests of electricity and gas US, which was shut down following an explosion
companies. in June. The plant is now anticipated to restart
“Both power and gas utilities have secured a some initial operations in early to mid-Novem-
solid level of LNG inventories for this winter,” an ber, assuming no further setbacks.
official at the ministry told Reuters. “But it would Operations at the MLNG DUA plant in
be better to reinforce the existing framework to Malaysia have also been disrupted since last
make it easier to accommodate the fuels across month as a result of a pipeline leak, although the
the power and gas industries in case of emer- remaining trains of the Petronas LNG complex
gencies that make it difficult to procure fuel remain online
nationwide.” The Prelude FLNG plant in Australia finally
Japan is one of the world’s biggest LNG came back on stream in September, after three
importers, bringing ashore 74.3mn metric of weeks of strike action. The closure resulted in
the commodity last year. Since the government’s total Australian LNG exports dipping in July
decision to phase out nuclear in the wake of the to a three-month low of 6.52mn tonnes, from
2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the country’s 7.03mn tonnes a year earlier.
use of gas and to a lesser extent coal has rapidly Prior to the war, other long-term outages
soared, and with no indigenous gas resources of have also exacerbated the supply situation.
its own, it has turned to LNG. One example is the Hammerfest LNG plant,
This alone makes the country’s energy system which closed down in September 2020 after a
very vulnerable to the global energy crisis. But serious fire. The terminal was meant to come
the country is even more exposed to risk because back online in autumn 2021, but its restart was
its biggest supplier of LNG is the Sakhalin-2 liq- delayed repeatedly, until eventually it returned to
uefaction plant in the Russian Far East, that the operation this spring.™

Week 42 21•October•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7