ConocoPhillips has resumed LNG shipments to Japan from its liquefaction plant in Nikiski, Alaska, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.
A shipment was made in late May and at least three shipments are planned this year from the plant, near Kenai, spokeswoman Natalie Lowman said.
The company could not identify the customers, she said.
All the shipments are being made on a spot cargo basis, Lowman said. The company is also using a larger tanker this year, the LNG Gemini, which can carry 125,000 mt per voyage, compared with the 87,000 mt capacity of the Polar Spirit tanker used last year, Lowman said.
"The LNG Gemini is under contract to carry all spot cargoes to be shipped this year," Lowman said. ConocoPhillips shipped six cargoes last year from the LNG plant: five to Japan and one to China, she said.
According to US Department of Energy data, however, ConocoPhillips in 2011 shipped a cargo monthly to Japan January-April, with nine total for the year. Eight were sent to Japan and one went to China.
ConocoPhillips in February 2011 said it would close the Nikiski LNG plant, which has operated since 1969, but announced later in the year that additional shipments would be made to help Japanese utilities deal with generation needs because Japan's nuclear plants were shut following the March 11 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
The Nikiski plant was put into a winter maintenance mode following the final shipments of 2011 but resumed making LNG in February to fill storage tanks when more gas from Cook Inlet wells became available, Lowman said.
Virtually all Cook Inlet gas produced November-January goes to local utilities to meet peak power and heating demand, she said.
Lowman could not comment on ConocoPhillips' gas-purchasing strategies but independent Cook Inlet producer Buccaneer Alaska last December said it had agreed to supply ConocoPhillips with gas to the LNG plant if it is needed.
ConocoPhillips has previously used gas at Nikiski only from its own Cook Inlet production and from Marathon Oil, another producer there and its former minority partner in the LNG plant.
