Japan looks for alternative to nuclear energy

The Russian-Japanese project on the production of liquefied gas is to be doubled. According to the Japanese business paper “Nikkei”, their joint venture enterprise in Vladivostok   is to produce 10 million tons of liquefied gas per year, and experts are to work out details of the plan before the end of this year.

Initially, the Russian Gazprom and the Japanese “Itotyu”, “Marubeni”, “Inpex” and “Japan Petroleum Exploration” Corporations  had planned to construct a plant near Vladivostok to produce 5 million tons of liquefied gas  annually, but the realities of the time, including the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant have forced a reexamination of the original plans. Two plants with a combined capacity of 10 million tons are now to be built instead of one, and Konstantin Simonov, Director General of the “Energy Security Foundation” sees no obstacle to the change:

"The construction of the Sakhalin-Vladivostok pipeline with a capacity of more than 30 billion cubic meters of gas is to be completed before the end of this year. That is behind the idea of the building of the liquefied gas plant near the end of the pipeline," Simonov said.

Liquefied gas has the advantage of being delivered in tankers or special trucks, in contrast to the conventional gas which can be pumped through a pipe only. This advantage was amply demonstrated after the quake-induced tsunami in Japan on March 11. Russia increased the delivery of pipeline gas to Europe in order to supply  to Japan the freed liquefied gas as a  result of the increased supply of liquid gas to Western Europe, to compensate for the shortages in energy in Japan.

Japan is the largest importer of liquefied gas. As an Island state, it has no other means of getting gas, says Simonov:

"The construction of a gas pipeline to Japan is still on the drawing board. There was a plan to lay a pipeline from Russia to Japan and on to Korea and back to Russia, thus forming a ring. But there are problems: For one, the line must pass through North Korea. For another, a large number of pipelines would have to be built on the seabed in seismic prone areas, making the project potentially risky.  It means that Japan will remain one of the biggest importers of liquefied gas for a long time to come," Simonov concluded.

The Fukushima nuclear plant will not be used again and there are already strident  voices in the country calling for a total ban on  the use of nuclear energy. If that happens, gas will become the only alternative source of energy since other sources do not meet ecological requirements.  Therefore, the construction of liquefied gas producing plants amounts to looking to the future.

By Natalya Kovalenko

The Voice of Russia, April 26, 2011