Japan Gas Sector Seeking To Offer Indonesia Coal-To-Gas Tech
Japanese gas utilities want to provide Indonesia with technology that would allow it to produce gas from coal, in exchange for a stable supply of liquefied natural gas to Japan, a senior industry official said Thursday.
“Coal-to-gas technology has been there for a decade or so,” said Kunihiro Mori, managing director of the Japan Gas Association. “At that time it was too expensive, and the technology was abandoned. But now, energy prices are very high. We would like them to meet domestic demand with the gas created from coal.”
Indonesia, the largest liquefied natural gas exporter to Japan by volume, also produces large amounts of coal.
The country, however, has been saying in recent years it may have to cut LNG exports to Japan to meet its own domestic demand.
On Wednesday, Indonesia’s state-owned energy company, Pertamina, said it may reduce LNG exports to Japan to 3 million-5 million tons a year from 2011 from about 12 million tons a year now.
The gas association is hoping to get subsidies from the Japanese government to develop the coal-to-gas technology for commercial use, said Mori. Several Japanese plant makers have already demonstrated possible coal-to-gas projects, he added.
Japan imported 66.8 million tons of LNG in 2007, up 7.4% from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Finance.
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