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JERA, the largest LNG buyer in Japan, plans to boost purchases from the United States to diversify its supply portfolio, a top company executive told Reuters on Friday.
Japan, the world’s second-largest LNG importer after China, is looking to increase its energy security with diverse sources of supply and could face steeper competition from fellow Asian importer South Korea, the world’s third-biggest, as well as from Europe.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened “tariffs all the way” if Europe doesn’t boost purchases of American oil and gas.
South Korea, for its part, is looking to import more crude and LNG from the United States to diversify its energy supply and reduce its trade surplus with America, South Korean Energy and Trade Minister, Ahn Duk-geun, said last week.
South Korea is considering more energy imports from the U.S. to potentially stave off tariffs that President Trump has promised to introduce on trade partners.
In this global context, Japan’s JERA seeks to diversify its LNG supply to reduce exposure to exporters from the Asia Pacific region such as Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
JERA currently buys almost half of all its LNG from these exporters.
“This accounts for very high exposure. My plan is to rebalance that and to make our LNG supply portfolio more diversified,” JERA’s head of LNG division, Ryosuke Tsugaru, told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The largest Japanese utility and LNG buyer wants to raise its exposure to U.S. LNG export projects under long-term contracts, Tsugaru said.
The executive, however, added that JERA would be monitoring the U.S. policies for their long-term sustainability.
Apart from more U.S. LNG, the Japanese firm is also looking at Qatar, the world’s second-largest LNG exporter after the United States, for additional supply.
“I am hopeful to continue and grow long-term LNG partnership with Doha,” Tsugaru told Reuters.
