After committing to supplying 4m tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan over the next 12 months (May 2011, Economic performance), Qatar is in talks with Japanese power companies once again for additional supplies. The need for extra supplies arose after the Japanese government asked Chubu Electric on May 8th to halt all operations at its Hamaoka nuclear plant, following an earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) Fukushima Daiichi plant in March, and which has led to a global debate around the safety of nuclear power. Japan faces the loss of about 15 gw of generation capacity from the closure of the Fukushima, Hamaoka and Onagawa nuclear plants.

The country will step up its LNG imports by an estimated 12m tonnes/year to make up for the lost supplies from the three nuclear plants. In 2010 Japan imported 70m tonnes of LNG, including 7.63m tonnes that it sourced from Qatar. On May 10th the chairman of Chubu Electric, Toshio Mita, met the Qatari energy and industry minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, and Qatargas's chief executive, Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa al-Thani, to discuss a possible deal for additional LNG supplies. Qatar is also in talks with other Japanese utilities, including Tepco and Tohoku Electric, for extra supplies. Sources indicate that Japan may ask for an additional 2m tonnes.

Meanwhile, Qatargas, one of two state-owned LNG companies, announced on May 22nd that it has added Greece to its customer portfolio, after delivering its first cargo of 141,014 cu metres of LNG to the Revithoussa LNG terminal for Greece's public gas supply corporation, Depa. Qatargas's chief executive, Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa al-Thani, did not disclose the amount or the period for which the two companies have signed the contract. In May 2010, Qatar and Greece signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build an LNG terminal in the Aitoloakarnania region, to provide feedstock for a plant that would supply 70% of its output to the Italian grid and 30% to the Greek Acheloos grid. The project was conceived at a time when Qatar was struggling to find new customers for its growing LNG production in an over-supplied market. Now, with the increasing LNG demand coming from Japan, China and India, Qatar may have to reconsider the project.