Japan’s Shizuoka Plans Gas Supply Business in Thailand

Japanese gas supplier Shizuoka Gas will start a natural gas supply business in Thailand next year, as part of efforts to support southeast Asia’s transition to a carbon-neutral society.

Shizuoka Gas yesterday signed an agreement with Thailand-based energy company Scan Inter Public (SCN) to acquire a 49pc stake in Thai-Japan Gas Network (TJN) by the end of this year, with the remaining 51pc held by SCN. TJN was established as a subsidiary of SCN in March but operates separately from its parent’s natural gas supply business.

TJN supplies 4,000mn Btu/d of natural gas, which it purchases from Thailand’s state-controlled PTT, to local industrial sectors. The natural gas includes compressed natural gas, as well as LNG. Shizuoka plans to increase this supply volume, as well as develop a customer base of Japanese companies in Thailand.

Shizuoka operates two electricity businesses in Thailand. The company started supplies of solar power in Thailand last month, its first renewable business outside of Japan.

Japanese-Thai joint venture Vnet SG Power, which is owned 49pc by Shizuoka and 51pc by Thai power company Vnet Power, signed a contract in July with Rajabhat Mahasarakham University in northeast Thailand to supply it with electricity for 20 years. The university has a solar power generation facility with around 2.2MW of capacity.

The company also operates a 350MW Bang Bo combined-cycle gas turbine power plant in southern Thailand’s Samut Prakan province. The plant began commercial operations in March 2003, using natural gas as a generation fuel.

Source: argusmedia