Tohoku flush with LNG offers after Arun stop

Tohoku flush with LNG offers after Arun stop

TOKYO (Dow Jones): Japan's Tohoku Electric Power Co. has
received spot liquefied natural gas offers of a total of about
1.2 million metric tons for delivery until June, after the
shutdown of the Arun gas field in Indonesia, a company official
said on Monday.

"For up until June, we received offers for LNG supply
equivalent to 20 tankers," the official said, without naming the
sources of the offers. "We are arranging vessel deployment as
well as adjusting unloading schedules at our import terminal."

The official said there is still no word from Pertamina,
Indonesia's state-owned oil concern, when natural gas production
can resume.

Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Indonesian unit, which is the sole natural
gas supplier to Indonesia PT Arun NGL's natural gas production,
shut down three onshore fields - Arun, Lhoksukon and Pase, March
13 because of rising security fears in Indonesia's troubled Aceh
province. The three fields produced a total 1.6 million cubic
feet of natural gas a day.

Tohoku Electric, which serves the northern part of Japan's
main island, imports 3 million metric tons a year of LNG from
Arun on a free-on-board basis under a long term contract with
Pertamina. Tohoku's other LNG supply sources, Malaysia and Qatar,
each sells slightly over 500,000 tons/year.

Tohoku already purchased one additional LNG cargo of about
60,000 tons from Malaysia for early April delivery in the wake of
the Arun halt.

The Tohoku official reiterated that there will be no immediate
power supply shortages.

The company has boosted operations of non-gas fired thermal
generation. It is shifting to oil-fired generation at some of its
usually gas-fired thermal power stations while raising operations
at oil-fired thermal stations.