World Gas Boom To Reshape Market
From Canberra Times
When Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March last year, forcing the shutdown of the entire nuclear power industry, it created a gaping hole in the energy supply system of the world’s third-biggest economy.
In racing to make up for the loss of nuclear power that provided about 30 per cent of Japan”s electricity, fuel importers turned chiefly to LNG, natural gas that is super-cooled into condensed liquid form so that it can be transported over long distances by sea in special tankers. Use of LNG in the first quarter of 2012 was up by just over a third on the same period in 2011, making Japan the largest consumer of LNG in a high-value international trade that is on the verge of major expansion. Japan is looking mainly to Australia, the Middle East and North America for extra supplies.
