Chubu & Tepco LNG Partnership

Tokyo Electric Power is looking to form a partnership with Chubu Electric Power in its business recovery efforts which would see the duo become the world’s largest buyer of LNG.
Tepco hopes to have the agreement wrapped up by September and the new company established by the end of March next year report The Japan News. Tepco plans to restructure its aging thermal power plants and gain an edge over the competition by lowering utility bills.
The company finds LNG import prices of high importance as they are relatively high compared to counterparts in Europe and United States, so Tepco hopes that with increased import volumes it will have a better bargaining position.
Chubu Electric is the second largest importer after Tepco which means that jointly they would be purchasing 40 million tons of LNG a year which would place them as the largest buyers in the world.
70% of Chubu Electric’s total output comes from thermal power generation and Tepco expects that it will also improve its efficiency by sharing the expertise in managing the plants as well as their construction.