Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (Jogmec), the agency helping secure a stable supply of oil and natural gas and other resources, has just published the results of two surveys on the volume of LNG handled by Japanese companies and the current status of destination restrictions in LNG sales and purchase agreements.
Jogmec was set up by the Tokyo Government in 2004 and has the full cooperation of all Japanese companies engaged in LNG.
The agency said that the latest surveys were aimed at “improving the flexibility and liquidity” of the LNG market to enhance energy security.
The survey on the “LNG Handling Volumes of Japanese Companies” revealed that they handled around 110 million tonnes of LNG in the fiscal year 2021.
The second survey on the “Destination Clauses and Price Indices in LNG SPAs” showed that the contract quantity with destination restrictions were improving for 10-year contracts through 2030.
“About 45 million tonnes, or 53 percent of the total, in the fiscal year 2021, had destination clauses compared with 21 million tonnes, or 43 percent of the total, in the fiscal years through to 2030,” said Jogmec.
LNG handled
“The LNG volumes handled by Japanese companies last year came to 109.57MT, showing a slight decrease of 0.73MT from the previous year. However, the Japanese companies have continuously achieved 100MT since fiscal 2019,” said the report.
Jogmec also noted that the FY2019 and FY2020 actual figures had been revised in this latest survey due to corrections of reports from the surveyed companies.
LNG imports in FY2021 totaled 71.46MT, a decrease of 4.9MT from the previous year, while the volume of the “external trade” increased by 4.17MT to 38.11MT, resulting in the LNG handling volume in FY2021 being at almost the same level as in FY2020.
The second survey looked at 10-year contracts from FY2021 through FY2030 and based on the annual contract quantity (ACQ).
The ACQ of the fixed-term SPAs concluded by Japanese companies was approximately 84MT in FY2021 and will amount to 49MT through FY2030.
As of FY2021, the ACQ for Delivered Ex-Ship (DES) and free-on-board (FOB) terms and their respective shares were approximately 50MT, or 59 percent, for DES terms and 34MT, or 41 percent, for FOB terms.
“As of FY2030, as the ACQ declines, the ACQ for DES and FOB terms is also to decrease to approximately 25MT and 24MT respectively,” said Jogmec.
