Japanese gas companies are preparing plans to source liquefied natural gas from Malaysia, Australia and the US in case of what they fear could be looming disruption of supply from LNG projects that Japan jointly developed with Russia.
The contingency plans could put the world’s third-largest economy in direct competition with Europe for global gas supplies, highlighting Japan’s focus on meeting its own energy needs despite its desire to show solidarity with Russia’s western neighbours.
Japanese gas importers said that while some excess LNG cargos have been shipped to Europe since February, there was no prospect of major diversions from long-term contracts from producers such as Qatar because of Japan’s energy security sensitivities.
The Japanese power companies are concerned about the security of supplies from Russia, despite pledges by Tokyo not to pull out of the lonn-tonnes-a year Sakhalin-2 LNG project and other joint developments with Russia on Sakhalin island north of Japan.
‘In case of difficulties in procuring gas from Sakhalin, we are considering tapping our Malaysian suppliers to increase volume or to ask them to deliver supplies in advance,” said Takayuki Yamane of Hiroshima Gas Co. The utility buys about 200,000 tonnes of its annual LNG from Sakhalin-2 in a contract that runs through March 2028.
Seeking new sources of LNG would put Japan in competition for scarce global supplies against European nations that are desperate to reduce their own heavy dependence on gas piped from Russia.
Japanese companies fear Russian supplies could be threatened by increasing international pressure to cut ties with Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, or by potential Kremlin retaliation over other sanctions already imposed by Tokyo.
Japan on Friday banned Russian coal imports and vowed to follow the policy agreed on with G7 allies of reducing reliance on Russian energy overall.
Japan’s regional gas utilities rely heavily on Russia to fuel some of the country’s