LNG

Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (Japex), the LNG importer involved in domestic Japanese oil and gas projects and with stakes overseas in nations such as Iraq, Indonesia and the UK, reported a drop in profits as global prices weakened.

Feb 29 (LNGJ) - A Japanese consortium of LNG and energy players has signed a storage site agreement with Malaysia’s Petronas and Petroleum Sarawak (Petros) for the depleted M3 gas field that previously supplied the Bintulu LNG export plant and will now be used as part of a carbon-capture and storage project.

   Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., engineering firm JGC Holdings Corp and shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-LINE) signed the accord. “This collaboration represents a significant advancement in the efforts to reduce greenhous-gas emissions in the Asia Pacific region, including Malaysia and Japan,” said the companies.

Nov 20 (LNGJ) - Japanese LNG engineering company, JGC Holdings Corp., said it had agreed with Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. and Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-Line) on the key principles for the commercialisation of a carbon-capture and storage (CCS) with Malaysian energy company Petronas by the end of 2028.

   “The target amount of CO2 injection is to be at least 2 million tons per year at the beginning of the project, including that from Malaysia and Japan, and 5 million tons per year by 2030, with a view to increasing the amount to more than 10 million tons per year in the early 2030s,” the companies said.

Jan 9 (LNG) - Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), MOL Ferry Co., Japan Petroleum Exploration (Japex) and Hokkaido Gas have signed two separate agreements between MOL and Japex and between MOL and the utility Hokkaido Gas for the supply of LNG fuel to two newbuild LNG-powered ferries in each port on the Oarai-Tomakomai route operated by MOL Group company MOL Ferry.

   “The LNG fuel supply is scheduled to start in 2025 when the ferries will enter service. Japex will supply LNG fuel to the ferries at the Port of Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture and Hokkaido Gas will supply it at the Port of Tomakomai in Hokkaido through the truck-to- ship method,” they added.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape urged Australian LNG and mining sector investors to “take my people with you” in an address to a mining and petroleum conference in Sydney on future development projects in his Oceania nation.

March 17 (LNGJ) - Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (Japex) said it suspended operations at its Soma LNG terminal after an earthquake the previous day off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. “There has been no damage to the surrounding area, such as gas leakage from the terminal,” stated Japex. The terminal receives and stores LNG from overseas and regasified cargoes serve a nearby power plant, or can be distributed along the coast or loaded onto trucks.

   “Due to the suspension of supply operations immediately after the earthquake, boil-off gas, the vaporized gas from LNG stored in the LNG storage tanks, is being burned as a measure to release the gas safely. By taking these measures, flames are being emitted from the flare stack, but there are no safety issues at the terminal or the surrounding area,” explained the company.

Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., the oil and gas operator with liquefied natural gas import terminal and Japanese pipelines assets, has agreed to cut losses and sell its stake to Malaysia’s Petronas in the Canadian North Montney shale-gas joint venture.

A group of Japanese utilities and energy companies will be receiving more liquefied natural gas volumes for the Soma LNG terminal after the new Fukushima Natural Gas Power Plant started to generate electricity at full capacity from its two units in the prefecture where the nuclear plant exploded during an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (Japex) said it began commercial operations at Japan’s newest LNG import terminal at Soma Port, located in Fukushima Prefecture in eastern Japan, near where the nuclear disaster happened seven years ago this month.