The Australian: Inpex bullish on LNG as Japan’s nuke restart stalls

Japan’s biggest oil and gas company, Inpex, says it expects liquefied natural gas demand to remain strong because the country’s nuclear plants have been slow to restart after the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima meltdown.

And the 20 per cent state-owned company, which is building the $US34 billion ($36bn) Ichthys LNG project at Darwin, expects US LNG exports to have a limited effect on global ­prices.

Inpex’s vice-president of corporate strategy and planning, Kimihisa Kittaka, said there was still heated debate in Japan over how much of the completely shut-down nuclear power sector should be turned back on.

“Last year, people expected about 10 nuclear power plants to be activated by the end of 2014,” Mr Kittaka said. “Only one or two are under strict re-examination, so we do not expect to get near to 10.” MORE