“JX Nippon Oil & Energy (JX) has worked out a clear policy to expand its natural gas and LNG business. In the wake of doubling the LNG receiving capacity of Mizushima LNG in 2011, the company is constructing the primary terminal at Hachinohe and the secondary terminal at Kushiro now.

After the scheduled completion of these terminals in April 2015, JX intends to promote its primary distribution business of LNG all over the country for either household or industrial use. JX’s natural gas and LNG supply business has greatly advanced since 2006 when it started to operate Mizushima LNG which had been established by its fifty-fifty joint venture with Chugoku Electric Power.

The distribution terminal was started to procure and store LNG fuels for supply to Chugoku Electric Power for thermal power generation and for selling out to other consumers. It started to supply natural gas by pipelines as well as LNG by tank truck to the neighboring city gas suppliers and industrial consumers. In the following year, the company constructed the second terminal to receive LNG by domestic vessels at Hachinohe, and was deploying its pipeline and LNG business also around Hachinohe by procuring LNG from Sodegaura Plant of Tokyo Gas Company.

The business operation at both Mizushima and Hachinohe was growing successfully with the background of needs for the recent fuel conversion from heavy oil, kerosene and LPG as well as to reduce emission of SOX, NOX and CO2 for environmental protections.

However, as the LNG receiving capacity has reached the limits, the sales volume has leveled off at 600,000 tons per year during these several years. That is why the construction of a new terminal is being implemented at Kushiro aiming for reinforcement of the existing capacity and expansion of the sales channels.

Shoji Gonda, manager of Gas Business Dept. of Energy Solution Division said, “The investment in the LNG receiving terminals amounts to more than 50 billion yen per terminal. An LNG business is so large-scaled and long-termed requiring 20 years for recovery that the basic supply agreements to support is indispensable. Not limiting to the primary distribution business of petroleum, we aim to be a comprehensive company to deal with all energies except for nuclear power, including LNG, kerosene, LPG and next-generation energies like solar and fuel batteries. It is said that we cannot foresee five years ahead of the energy market, but we are going to diversify energy products and enhance elasticity of our status of business as an enterprise.””