The Sodeshi LNG terminal, operated by Shizuoka Gas, is close to starting liquefied natural gas reloading operations, company’s deputy general manager, feedstock department, Hirotaka Kaneda said.
Kaneda told Bloomberg that the reloading facility at the Sodeshi terminal is set to be completed in April, becoming the first Japanese facility to resell cargoes on a regular basis. He added that currently only Kansai Electric Power has an LNG reloading facility in Japan.
The facility has been completed in 2007 and only used to reload one cargo, the report said.
Shizuoka Gas imports about 1 million tons of LNG per year and plans to resell up to two cargoes per year to neighboring countries like China and South Korea, according to Kaneda.
He noted that smaller companies like Shizuoka Gas could cut average prices by reloading and reselling cargoes.
Japan is expected to have a 12.2 billion cubic meters of LNG surplus in 2017 with declining imports and other utilities are also interested in using Shizuoka Gas’ reloading facility to resell surplus gas.
Kaneda declined to reveal the names of interested companies, although he did add that the reloading facility would allow them to buy cheap spot cargoes and ship them elsewhere once the prices of LNG recover, the report said.
LNG World News Staff