Inpex LNG Terminal Link in Japan's Gas Supply Chain

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Efforts to establish a gas-supply chain are under way following an announcement by Japan's Teikoku Oil Company, a subsidiary of INPEX Holdings Incorporated (Shibuya, Tokyo), that it plans to begin construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal at the Port of Naoetsu in June 2010. The Port of Naoetsu is on the Sea of Japan in Joetsu, Niigata, in the Chubu region of Japan.

Construction at the Arahama Pier Zone, which is scheduled to finish in June 2013, will set up a receiving terminal with a capacity to regasify 3 million tons per year of LNG. Two 180,000-kiloliter storage tanks will be installed at the site. INPEX will serve as both the owner and the developer, and has established the LNG Receiving Terminal Construction Division for overall project management. Akinori Sakamoto will serve as project manager on site at the construction office in Naoetsu.

Imported gas supplies are partly to come from Ichthys and Abadi, two of INPEX's Asia and Oceania projects. The Ichthys project, which is in the Maret Islands near the coast of northwest Australia and was commercially active in the past, will produce 6 million tons per year of LNG. Abadi, which is in the Arafura Sea near the coast of Indonesia, is expected to produce 3 million tons per year.

Along with INPEX's scheduled January 2010 plans to introduce vaporized LNG from Shizuoka Gas Company, as well as gas from the Minami Nagaoka Gas Field, the construction of the LNG terminal with imported gas is expected to reinforce INPEX's setup of a stable gas supply chain. The new terminal will handle up to 3% of Japan's LNG imports upon completion.

INPEX Holdings is Japan's largest petroleum company and is operating 70 projects in 26 countries. The company has branches and subsidiary branches in Indonesia; Australia; Houston, Texas; South America; the Middle East; and London, England, among others. In 2008, it took BusinessWeek's No. 5 ranking in the Top 50 Best-Performing Asian Companies scoreboard.

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