Subject: [cwj 75] Japan Turns to Australian Gas Fields for Cleaner Energy
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 16:50:50 -0700
Seq: 75
Thursday, August 17 1:53 PM SGT Japan Turns to Australian Gas Fields for Cleaner Energy SYDNEY, Aug 17 Asia Pulse - The increasing demand for less environmentally damaging energy sources has turned Japan's sights to Australian gas fields. Nippon Mitsubishi Oil Corp has discovered a natural gas field in the Timor Sea with daily production capacity of 65.5 million cubic feet. A decision on whether to commercialise it will come by the end of 2001. Another Japanese petroleum company, Indonesia Petroleum Ltd (INPEX), has found a gas field on the North West Shelf of Western Australia, which is said to produce 22 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Oil companies are not alone in their interest in gas development. Osaka Gas Co purchased a 10 percent stake in the Greater Sunrise and Evans Shoal gas fields in the Timor Sea from Woodside Energy Ltd and Shell Development (Australia) Pty Ltd. Osaka Gas hopes to ship four million tons of LNG from the gas field to Japan starting 2010. "Owning a stake gives us more bargaining power in price negotiations," said a spokesperson at Osaka Gas. "It will also help us meet higher gas demand in the future," he said. Japan is currently the world's largest importer of LNG, purchasing over 49 million tons in 1998 from countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia. But Japan still relies heavily on oil, coal and nuclear power, with only 12 percent of its total energy source coming from natural gas. The government is trying to change this to meet its commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A committee of Japan's Ministry of Industrial Trade and Industry recently issued an interim report proposing increased use of natural gas due to its lower carbon dioxide emission. Utilities are not as enthusiastic as the government in shifting to LNG due to its high transportation costs. But strong public opposition toward the construction of new nuclear power plants are pressuring power firms to turn to LNG. "Utilities see nuclear power as the best choice for securing stable energy supply and meeting environmental needs at the same time," said Satoshi Abe, senior analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd. "But with nuclear power plant projects at a standstill, they have no choice but to rely on LNG," he said. Growing interest in LNG means more business opportunities for Australia, which currently exports over seven million tons to Japan each year. "Australia's strength is its political stability and proximity to Japan," said Hiroshi Ikeda, Sydney office general manager of Japan National Oil Corp, a government body that offers financial assistance to Japanese oil and gas projects. "But it may have a tough time competing in terms of price," he said. Asian and Middle Eastern countries with abundant gas supplies are scrambling to get contracts by offering cheaper deals. Such intense competition, along with buyers' demand for shorter-term contracts, is making gas development projects more difficult to succeed. "To get a LNG project off the ground, you really have to tie yourself into 20-year contracts to pay the loan off," said Paul Kay, manager at the Industry, Science and Resources Ministry's petroleum and electricity division. "But there's a lot of pressure in the marketplace to do shorter contracts, and that's probably what's going to happen, even for Australia," he said. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Corporate Watch in Japanese is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. ------------------------------------- Corporate Watch in Japanese Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) P.O. Box 29344 San Francisco, CA 94129 USA Tel: 1-415-561-6472 Fax: 1-415-561-6493 Email: cwj@corpwatch.org URL: http://www.corpwatch-jp.org ------------------------------------- ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". To subscribe to the CWJ mailing list, send a message to majordomo@jca.apc.org with the text "subscribe cwj" * The CWJ mailing list is NOT intended for wide distribution. If you would like to post messages from this list somewhere else, we ask that you first contact us at cwj@corpwatch.org ______________________