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also hopes to expand its plant at a later date; and Japanese shipping companies to speed up devel-
it hopes to push processing volumes up to 50,000 opment of LNG bunker options.
bpd eventually. Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-Line) named
Japan’s first LNG bunkering vessel last week
If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping at Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ (KHI) Sakaide
Africa’s oil and gas sector then please click here for Works. Central LNG Marine Fuel Japan will use
NewsBase’s AfrOil Monitor . the vessel, christened Kaguya on September 16,
to begin supplying LNG to ships in the Chubu
Japan’s LNG imports shrink 4.1% in Au- region before the end of the year, K-Line said
gust on September 18. Kaguya’s first supply opera-
While Japan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) tions will involve the NYK-operated pure car
imports shrank by 4.1% year on year in August and truck carrier (PCTC) vessel Sakura Leader,
to 5.84mn tonnes, cheaper supplies of the fuel which is the first large PCTC to be fuelled by
prevented a steeper decline. The country paid LNG. The bunkering vessel will also supply a
JPY190.9bn ($1.83bn) for its LNG deliveries last new car carrier that K-Line is set to deliver before
month, which was 44% less than in August 2019. the end of March 2021.
August volumes were also down 3.3%
from the 6.04mn tonnes imported in July. If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping
Deliveries in the first eight months of the year Asia’s oil and gas sector then please click here for
amounted to 48.2mn tonnes, around JPY2.3 NewsBase’s AsianOil Monitor .
trillion ($22.01bn). While industrial gas demand
remains subdued in the wake of the coronavi- Nigerian gas grants
rus (COVID-19) pandemic, demand from the Nigeria wants to encourage the use of com-
power sector picked up as the economics of LNG pressed natural gas (CNG) as a vehicle fuel, to
over coal-fired generation improved. Japanese reduce its fuel import bill and bring down costs
thermal coal shipments contracted by 12% y/y for motorists.
in August to 7.9mn tonnes, according to provi- The country’s central bank is offering a
sional Finance Ministry data. The uptick in last NGN250bn ($648mn) stimulus package that
month’s power demand, owing to a summer heat aims to make CNG the “fuel of choice” for trans-
wave, is not expected to translate into lasting portation, and make LPG the favoured option
support for LNG purchases, however. for domestic cooking, captive power and small
Japanese power and gas utilities’ high com- industrial complexes. It also wants to scale up
mitment to long-term volumes is likely to stifle gas-based industries such as petrochemicals.
buyer interest for additional volumes even if Investors can access the fund, which has a
winter temperatures are colder than expected, 10-year maximum tenor, at interest rates of no
Platts quoted unnamed market sources as say- more than 5%, until the end of February next
ing in late August. year. After that point rates will rise to 9%.
Japanese demand for LNG has been slowly Nigeria has some 5.3 trillion cubic metres in
tapering off in the wake of the country’s restart proven gas reserves, according to its own esti-
of nuclear power generation, with nine reac- mates, but so far investment in gas production
tors having been reactivated so far. The Japan and infrastructure has been weak. The govern-
Atomic Energy Commission has called for more ment wants to capitalise much more on this
to be brought back online in order to reduce the resource, by encouraging consumption in many
country’s carbon emissions and stabilise power areas.
supplies. The situation, coupled with tighter Nigeria also hopes that using CNG will be
maritime emission rules, has encouraged a cheaper option than more traditional motor

Week 38 24•September•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9