Former Japanese Foreign Minister Seizi Maehara said that Japan is studying construction of a gas pipeline from Russia underwater, as an alternative to liquefied gas supplies, RIA Novosti reports .
Japan is the world’s fourth largest energy consumer, although lacking its own energy resources. The country consumes about 80 billion cubic meters of gas annually. 14% of its energy comes from gas. 100% of its gas demands are fulfilled by imports. The Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, comparable with Chernobyl, has caused an increase in gas demand.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered extraction of hydrocarbons in the Far East to speed up in March 2011 after the earthquake that caused a power cut on March 11, 2011.
Gazprom and the Japan Far East Gas Company, including Itochu, Japex, Marubeni, Inpex and Cieco, are developing a project for liquefied gas supplies from Vladivostok.
Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are planning an underwater gas pipeline too. The European Commission issued a mandate to negotiate construction of the trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline. It will be about 300 km long with a cap of 20-30 billion cubic meters of gas annually to unite the Azerbaijani and Turkmen coasts and transport gas to Europe. Kazakhstan was invited to take part.
Russia has realized the Nord Stream project with Germany under the Baltic Sea. The Russian, Italian, French and German project of South Stream along the Black Sea from Jugba to Bulgaria’s Varna has been negotiated.
