TOKYO: Japan’s JERA Co said on Friday it imported the country’s first liquefied shale gas cargo from the United States as part of efforts to diversify its supply. This also marks Japan’s first import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced in the contiguous United States. Japan previously had imported U.S. LNG only from Alaska. JERA, a fuel joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, said the vessel Oak Spirit, which passed through the Panama Canal, arrived at Chubu Electric’s Joetsu LNG terminal facing the Sea of Japan on Friday. JERA is the world’s biggest importer of LNG.
The Tokyo-based firm bought the LNG from Cheniere Marketing International LLP. The 70,000-tonne cargo was produced at the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal in Louisiana and was loaded on Dec. 7. The import was part of a short-term contract between the two firms in which Jera is to take delivery of 700,000 tonnes of U.S. LNG by January 2018, a Jera spokesman said.
