Sojitz Corp., Japan’s top trader of rare earths, plans to tap into the nation’s shift from nuclear power by setting up its own liquefied natural gas business and building solar plants, said Chief Executive Officer Yoji Sato.
The smallest of Japan’s six major trading houses, Sojitz is a minority shareholder in gas and LNG projects in Indonesia and Qatar, and now plans to invest independently, considering projects in Nigeria, Canada and Australia’s offshore LNG platforms, Sato said in an interview in Tokyo Dec. 11.
“We need to invest in new assets and from here on we’d like to invest as ourselves, as Sojitz,” Sato said.
The 2011 Fukushima disaster has left most of Japan’s atomic capacity idled while gas’s share of the power mix this year climbed to about 50 percent, the highest of the world’s top 10 energy users. That’s led to an unprecedented shortfall in Japan’s LNG supplies through 2017 and pushed cargo prices to a two-year high, according to data from Tri-Zen International Inc., which estimates that the country has long-term contracts to cover 76 percent of its needs this year.
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