Japan, EU to Launch LNG Cooperation

On June 7, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy decided to launch cooperation on gas and LNG market, expecting that it will contribute to promoting the development of transparent and liquid global gas market driven by supply and demand fundamentals.

Overview and objectives

The environment surrounding gas and LNG market has been undergoing dramatic changes, represented by a shale gas revolution in North America, the increase of gas demand in Asia, and the rising share of LNG in Europe, in recent years. Despite the fact that the gas price in North America has been declining due to the shale gas revolution, Asian LNG consuming countries and some European countries face the rising price of natural gas, which would affect their competitiveness and result in a high gas import expenditures. In response to such common challenges, Japan and Europe share the need for the development of transparent and liquid global gas market driven by supply and demand fundamentals, while maintaining secure and stable supply.

Considering the background, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy decided to launch cooperation on gas and LNG market with the following objectives:

• sharing understandings on international gas markets
• assessing how the markets should ideally function
• discussing the means to support the transition towards liquid and flexible (global) gas markets.

The cooperation project includes the following activities:

• Both parties implement the studies on natural gas and LNG market that are based on their interests independently
• Both parties are to hold meetings to share appropriate contents from the results of the studies and to exchange opinions about achieving a desirable structure of the global gas and LNG market. The first meeting is to be held on June 7.
• Both parties will prepare a joint “issues paper” or “document of key findings” based on the results obtained from the activities above and contribute to relevant multilateral discussions such as the second LNG Producer-Consumer Conference on Se and IEA ministerial meeting in autumn 2013.

[mappress]
LNG World News Staff, June 07, 2013