Top Japanese power generation company JERA said recently it had signed an initial agreement aimed at buying liquified natural gas from a huge pipeline project in Alaska, after Tokyo agreed to increase US purchases as part of a trade deal.
the firm said it had signed a letter of intent with its US project developer Glenfarne ‘to advance discussions about liquefied natural gas offtake from the Alaska LNG Project’. Glenfarne, which is driving the pipeline, said in a statement that the letter detailed the ‘the sale of one million tonnes per annum of liquified natural gas from the Alaska LNG Project over a 20-year term’. US President Donald Trump has touted the 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) pipeline that will produce LNG to be shipped to Asia on tankers. However, the long-stalled $44-billion project – which must overcome various complex technical obstacles – is not expected to be operational before 2030 at the earliest.
a joint statement between the two countries said Tokyo was committed to ‘stable and longterm incremental purchases of US energy’ including ‘exploring a new Alaskan offtake agreement’ for LNG.