S&P Global Offerings
Featured Topics
Featured Products
Events
S&P Global Offerings
Featured Topics
Featured Products
Events
S&P Global Offerings
Featured Topics
Featured Products
Events
S&P Global Offerings
Featured Topics
Featured Products
Events
Solutions
Capabilities
Delivery Platforms
News & Research
Our Methodology
Methodology & Participation
Reference Tools
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Featured Events
S&P Global
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
S&P Global Offerings
S&P Global
Research & Insights
S&P Global
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
About Commodity Insights
Solutions
Capabilities
Delivery Platforms
News & Research
Our Methodology
Methodology & Participation
Reference Tools
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Featured Events
S&P Global
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
S&P Global Offerings
S&P Global
Research & Insights
S&P Global
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
About Commodity Insights
17 Jul 2023 | 22:59 UTC
Highlights
Proposes to consider gas security role at IEA ministerial in Feb 2024
IEA's potential role to advise action on gas/LNG reserves for security
Gas reserves held by country, might be difficult to act like for oil: Sadamori
Japan proposed to the International Energy Agency to consider expanding its function of natural gas security during an LNG ministerial conference July 18, a move Tokyo hopes will lead to a landmark decision in bolstering its capability beyond responding to oil market crisis.
Japan tabled the proposal at the LNG Producer-Consumer Conference in Tokyo, which for the first time was co-hosted with the IEA. This is happening at a time when the agency described the world in the middle of its first truly global energy crisis.
"To be prepared for any contingency situations, we call on the need of securing [LNG] reserve, stockpile and storage and building new cooperation between countries," Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura told the conference.
"When the IEA researches natural gas, LNG reserves methods suitable for each country's situation in the future, the Japanese government intends to contribute utmost discussion especially for recommendation of building such frameworks in consuming countries through cooperation with the IEA," Nishimura said.
In its voluntary commitments in the chair's summary for the LNG Producer-Consumer Conference, Japan said it commits to contributing to the discussion on the potential roles of IEA in natural gas/LNG by exploring different forms of reserves for natural gas/LNG, which are harder to store than crude oil.
Japan, a founding member of the IEA, hopes its proposal will be a stepping stone for the agency to put forward a decision to enhance its gas security function at its ministerial meeting in February 2024, Japanese government sources told S&P Global Commodity Insights.
The proposal coincides with the IEA celebrating its 50th anniversary since it was established in 1974 as part of a response to the 1973-1974 oil crisis. The agency maintains its original collective oil emergency response system mechanism intended to stabilize markets and the global economy.
The move comes as Japan suggested that the IEA could potentially enhance its role in the area of gas security -- from providing recommendations based on analysis of the state of natural gas/LNG reserves to being better prepared for any supply disruptions, the sources said.
Given the difference in the forms of natural gas reserves held by various countries, Japan hopes the IEA will add an advisory function to respond to any gas and LNG supply disruptions in the future, the sources said.
Japan also calls for the IEA to facilitate collaborations among nations to come up with a cleaner LNG value chain for achieving both net-zero and ensuring gas security, the sources said.
In the chair's summary, the IEA also acknowledged the recommendations from some member countries seeking the IEA to continue its role in providing recommendations based on the analyses of the state of natural gas/LNG reserves, following a series of the IEA Task Force on Gas and Clean Fuels Market Monitoring and Supply Security (TFFS) meetings and workshops under which the natural gas/LNG reserves emerged as one of the focus areas for ensuring the long-term supply security.
Speaking at a press conference following the end of the LNG Producer-Consumer Conference, Keisuke Sadamori, IEA's director of energy markets and security, said that the agency has been working to enhance its gas storage monitoring.
"Gas reserves is extremely difficult because of the difference in characteristics of the commodity unlike oil," Sadamori said. "While the [gas] storage system is held by each country, the IEA might not be able to play an operational role like for oil."
"We are making such efforts as analyzing each country's system and operations explicitly, and it is extremely important to share it with each country," he added.
The LNG Producer-Consumer Conference was started by Japan in 2012 as a forum for major producers and consumers after the country increased LNG demand in the wake of nuclear outages following the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011.