Japan becomes the first country to build a strategic reserve of liquefied gas. However, the initial plan is limited to the purchase of only one additional gas on a monthly basis. Japanese Jara Trader, winner of the competition for the supply of liquefied methane for the Strategic Buffer Reserve of LNG, undertakes to provide one tanker on a monthly basis during the heating season. This will help the government of the country to avoid possible disruptions in supplies.
JEA is already a key player in the Japanese LNG market, selling about 40 million tons a year, but this one monthly reserve will not be able to cover even 1.3% of the country's monthly consumption. Other LNG consumers have considered similar ideas for creating reserves, including the EU, but the implementation of such plans is technically complicated. The creation of large reserves of liquefied gas is a call, as this fuel evaporates quickly and the losses during transportation increase significantly. As a result, the PNG batch does not usually persist for a long time, limiting the period to two to three months.
