LNG

July 8 (LNGJ) - Chubu Electric Power has decided to offer a 10-year bond worth 20 billion yen ($185 million) and a 20-year bond at 10 billion yen in domestic corporate transactions. The fossil fuel and LNG assets of Chubu and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are now run by their Jera Co Inc. joint venture as part of the reforms in the Japanese energy market. Chubu, based in Nagoya, and Tepco still run their own electricity transmission, distribution and retail businesses, and their nuclear plants.

Jan 26 (LNGJ) - Four Japanese companies have begun joint discussions on the commercialization of a new business to supply LNG as a marine fuel for ships in the Chubu region of Japan. The companies are Japanese shipping line Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, known as K-Line, the utility Chubu Electric Power, trading company Toyota Tsusho Corp. and Japanese shipbuilder Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha. “LNG is expected to become an important alternative to heavy fuel oil due to its relatively low emissions of air-polluting substances and greenhouse gases, which will enable ships to meet increasingly stringent international regulations on emissions,” the four companies said in a statement.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric Power, the two largest users and importers of LNG in Japan, are discussing the full integration of their thermal power operations as part of Japanese energy and power deregulation and as the nation this week marks the sixth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster on 11 March 2011 that changed the nation’s energy outlook.

Feb 10 (LNGJ) - Chubu Electric Power, one of Japan’s largest LNG importers with operations in the central region of the Honshu main island, has opened up a new Tokyo office to promote natural gas sales in the coastal Tokyo metropolitan area under the deregulation system that has opened up energy markets in the country. “The Tokyo metropolitan area is a large market and has high potentials for growth,” said Chubu. “Marketing efforts have been underway there, regarding power and gas for corporate customers as well as residential,” it added. “Chubu Electric will step up its power and gas sales activities in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures to reach its targets of selling 20 billion kilowatt hours in non-Chubu areas, and 3 million tonnes of regasified LNG, both within and outside the Chubu area,” the company said.

Osaka Gas Co., one of Japan’s largest liquefied natural gas buyers with long-term contracts to receive cargoes from nations such as Qatar and Australia, said it was in talks with some suppliers to remove destination re-sale restrictions.

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given a permit for an extension of the Gulf South Pipeline that will allow Japanese and European customers of Freeport LNG to transport their feed-gas to the liquefaction plant being constructed at Quintana Island in Texas.

The Jordan Cove LNG project in the northwest state of Oregon, recently blocked by US regulators, is set to get back on track after it signed a supply agreement with the two largest utilities in Japan.

Kinder Morgan is seeing regulatory progress in its plans to move feed-gas from the Marcellus Shale in the US northeast to the Gulf Coast to boost supplies for LNG export projects in Louisiana and Texas.