ConocoPhillips Ships Third LNG Shipment From Alaska to Japan

LNG Gemini, picture here, is owned and operated by PRONAV Ship Management of Germany.

(Bloomberg) — ConocoPhillips has shipped a third cargo of liquefied natural gas to Japan from the only U.S. LNG plant permitted to sell domestically produced fuel to the Asian country.

The cargo from Nikiski on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula is scheduled to arrive Aug. 26 at the western Japanese port of Himeji on LNG Gemini, a tanker that can carry 126,750 cubic meters, according to ship-tracking data on Bloomberg.

ConocoPhillips has loaded its third cargo of the year from Nikiski, Natalie Lowman, a spokeswoman for the company’s Alaskan unit, said in an Aug. 18 e-mail. It planned to ship as many as five LNG cargoes to Japan this year, Lowman said in an e-mail in June. She didn’t name the buyers, citing confidentiality agreements.

Kansai Electric Power Co., which has bought two previous shipments of Alaskan LNG this year, and Osaka Gas Co. have terminals for receiving the fuel at Himeji. Kazushige Akita, a Kansai Electric spokesman, declined to say whether the Aug. 26 cargo was bought by his company. Osaka Gas didn’t buy the shipment, according to Nozomi Itagoshi, a spokeswoman for the company.

ConocoPhillips’ license allows it to sell U.S.-produced gas to countries with which the nation has no free trade agreement. The Department of Energy awarded a similar authorization last year to Cheniere Energy Inc., which plans a terminal in Sabine Pass, Louisiana.