Japan’s Osaka Gas 9532 expects to see little impact on its balance of supply and demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a partial shutdown of U.S. Freeport LNG’s facilities, the president of the city gas provider said on Wednesday.
Last week Freeport said it shut the Train 2 liquefaction unit at its Texas plant, while Train 1 would be taken down soon in expectations of completing by May its inspections and any subsequent repairs at both units.
“Our procurement volume from Freeport may fall slightly due to the issue, but we remain in comfortable position in terms of LNG procurement, thanks to the mild winter conditions,” President Masataka Fujiwara told a press conference.
“I don’t see it as significantly affecting our supply and demand balance,” he said, adding that he believed the mild winter had left most of Japan’s other buyers with an excess of fuel.
Freeport LNG, the third biggest LNG export plant in the United States, supplies Osaka Gas with 2.32 million metric tons of the super-chilled fuel each year.
A fire in June 2022 shut Freeport for about eight months, causing the Japanese utility a hefty loss as it needed to pay higher prices for alternative supply.
Osaka Gas is also an owner of the U.S. project, with stakes of 10.8% in Freeport LNG and 25% in one of the three liquefaction trains.
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