A senior delegation from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and private sector is visiting Mozambique for LNG and coal policy dialog on October 29, METI officials said Friday.
The delegation led by State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Isao Matsumiya, is visiting Maputo to kick off the first round of the bilateral policy dialogue with senior officials from the government and private sector, the officials said.
Senior officials from Mitsui and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal will also attend the talks to speak about their status and prospects of their ongoing natural gas and coal projects in Mozambique, the officials said.
During the talks, the Japanese government officials are expected to ask Mozambique's mineral resources to support Mitsui's planned LNG project with Anadarko to proceed smoothly, the officials said.
The policy dialog will take place at a time when there is growing interest in Japan for importing LNG from Mozambique as a means of not only diversifying its supply sources, but also as a potential alternative to increasingly costly oil-index LNG imports.
Japan's LNG demand has soared following the March 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster and Tokyo Gas has been seeking additional supplies from major exporters such as Qatar, although that supplier has insisted on retaining oil-linked contracts for its LNG.
Japan has also been stepping up efforts to lower the cost of its LNG imports after reporting its first annual trade deficit in 31 years in 2011. Japan as a whole imported a record 78.5 million mt of LNG in 2011.
LNG imports from the Middle East, which are linked to crude oil prices, are far more expensive than natural gas prices in the US, where the Henry Hub benchmark earlier this year fell to 10-year lows. Henry Hub prices are currently well below oil-linked LNG prices.
Mitsui is partnering with Anadarko, which operates natural gas developments leading to the LNG project, which is expected to have its first two trains, with a capacity of 5 million mt/year of LNG, coming on stream in 2018.
The inaugural bilateral talks will take place after METI Minister Yukio Edano and visiting Mozambican Minister of Mineral Resources Bias in February signed a memorandum of understanding to move forward bilateral cooperation in mineral, coal, oil and natural gas.
