Japan signs first LNG supply agreement with Malaysian Petronas
The Japan industry ministry announced on Friday that the country had signed a deal with Malaysia's Petronas to procure liquefied gas for an emergency.
The master sales and purchasing agreement will allow Petronas LNG to be delivered to the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security. This organization would then supply private buyers such as utilities if they could not obtain it anywhere else.
Tetsuya Adzuma, director of the Japanese Ministry's Energy Resources Development Division, didn't give any further details at the press conference following the LNG Producer-Consumer Conference held in Tokyo. He also did not mention the contract duration or the volume.
Datuk 'Adif Zulkifli - Petronas Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of Gas & Maritime Business, Datuk 'Adif Zulkifli - said that the deal reflected "many years" of trust between JOGMEC and Petronas.
In a press release, he stated that "By creating a more flexible framework for future LNG supplies arrangements, we will be better positioned in the future to meet evolving energy demands and to contribute to a greater supply resilience."
Japan and Montenegro also signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on Energy Projects, which included developing an LNG receiving terminal as well as a gas-fired electricity plant.
The outline 'deal' builds on the?memorandum of agreement JERA, Japan’s largest power-generation company, signed with the Montenegrin government last year to explore the?development of an LNG terminal and a gas-fired?plant in the country.
Azuma stated that the new memorandum was to help support private-sector efforts to "expand the global market" and further Japan's effort to diversify its sources of LNG.
(source: Reuters)
