Japan Spending $1.1 Billion in 2005 on Emergency LPG Storage

13 February 2005

Bloomberg. Japan, the world’s second-largest user of liquefied petroleum gas (behind the US), plans to spend as much as $1.1 billion this year building emergency storage tanks and terminals as a safeguard against any disruption of LPG supplies.

Japan imports about 75% of its LPG, with most of it coming from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

The three terminals will have 650,000 metric tons of capacity, enough to cover 17 days of demand, said an official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry who asked not to be identified. Two more terminals will be built underground by 2010 at a cost of 160 billion yen [About $1.5 billion], boosting the national reserve's capacity to 1.5 million tons, he said in an interview.

LPG is used for cooking, heating and as a plastics feedstock...but is also used as a transportation fuel. According to the World LPG Association (WLPGA), Japan is the second largest user (behind South Korea) of LPG as an auto fuel.