Japan is the world’s leading importer of liquefied natural gas, and its dependence on LNG has only increased since the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, which led to the shutdown of Japan’s 48 nuclear units. Some of those nukes are expected to return to service starting in 2015, but it’s possible—some would say likely—that a quarter or maybe even half of Japan’s nuclear fleet will never be restarted. While coal is cheap and oil is cheaper than it was a few months ago, natural gas-fired generation is seen as the best short-, mid- and long-term substitute for nuclear power. As a result, Japan utilities are working to increase and geographically diversify their LNG purchases, and to break what for decades has been a link between the pricing of LNG and oil. Today, we continue our look at how Japan’s response to the Fukushima disaster affects U.S. and Canadian natural gas producers and LNG exporters.
With only minimal domestic natural gas reserves, Japan has long depended on LNG imports from Australia, Qatar, Malaysia and others for virtually all its gas needs. Those needs spiked 20% when all of Japan’s nuclear units were taken offline in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. The nuclear blackout was—and is—a big deal; nuclear units had been providing three-tenths of Japan’s electricity, and there were plans to boost nuclear’s share of power production to 50% by 2030. Post-Fukushima, with most of its 46,000 MW of nuke capacity shut down (the last units were taken offline in September 2013), Japan went into power-emergency mode, ramping up the use of all its fossil-fired units and pleading (successfully, it turned out) for electricity customers to significantly reduce their demand. As we said in Episode 1, Japan was already the world’s leading LNG importer (accounting for about one-third of all LNG imports) pre-Fukushima. In 2010, Japan imported 71 million metric tons per year (MTPA) of LNG, the equivalent of 9.1 Bcf/d of natural gas, with just over 5 Bcf/d of that used to generate power (see Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Futtsu LNG terminal/power complex below). Currently Japan imports about 90 MTPA (11.5 Bcf/d), with 7.4 Bcf/d of that for power generation.
Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Futtsu LNG terminal/power station; Source: TEPCO
Japan has the LNG import terminals and regasification infrastructure to handle the increase, but with its nukes offline, the nation’s electric grid is maxed out during high demand periods, and all that incremental (and expensive) LNG has pushed Japan from trade surplus to trade deficit. To get its grid (and its overall economy) back on track, Japan needs to start getting some of its nuclear units back in operation. But, with safety a top concern and public support for nuclear power weak, Japan’s nuke reboot will take several years.
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About the song
“House of the Rising Sun” is a traditional folk song recorded by British rock group, The Animals, in 1964, with arrangement credit given to Animal's keyboardist Alan Price. The lyrics tell the tale of a harsh life centered around a house of ill repute called the House of the Rising Sun in New Orleans. Rumor has it that the location for the House of the Rising Sun was 828-830 St. Louis Street in New Orleans’s French Quarter. The building is still there, and after a recent visit by Animal’s singer Eric Burdon, he stated, “The house was talking to me.” (One must keep in mind that Burden wrote the song, “A Girl Named Sandoz,” a love song to Sandoz Laboratories’ LSD-25, back in 1967, so who knows what he meant about talking houses.) The band had done an arrangement on the song and had been using it as a closer on a tour they were doing with Chuck Berry. After hearing the positive response to the song, producer Mickie Most took the band to DeLane Lea recording studio in London and recorded the tune in one take in May 1964. When the record was pressed it listed Alan Price as the arranger which led to great bitterness and strife within the band as Price got all the songwriter’s royalties on the record. It eventually led to him leaving the band in May 1965. The story went that there wasn’t enough room to list all the band members’ names on the record label, but one has to wonder why they didn‘t just list “The Animals” if that was the case. Released as single in the U.S. in June 1964, it went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Personnel on the record were: Eric Burdon (vocals), Hilton Valentine (guitar), Alan Price (Vox Continental organ), Chas Chandler (bass), and John Steel (drums, percussion).
The Animals is the American debut album of the band by the same name. As “The House of the Rising Sun” was only released in a singles format in the U.K. and U.S., the album was put together by the band’s U.S. label, MGM, to include the song and promote album sales. Produced by Mickie Most, the album was released in September 1964 and went to #7 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. Two singles were released from the LP.
The Animals are an English rock band formed in Newcastle in 1962 by Eric Burdon, Alan Price, Hilton Valentine, Chas Chandler, and John Steel. They have released 10 studio albums (including ones released with Burdon under the Eric Burdon & The Animals moniker), five EPs, six compilation albums, and 25 singles. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In September 1966, the original band broke up, with Burden moving to California and putting together a new band called Eric Burdon & The Animals. Chas Candler went on to discover and manage Jimi Hendrix and produce future British superstars Slade. Chandler died in July 1996 and Hilton Valentine died in January 2021. Eric Burdon continues to perform live with various touring musicians as The Animals.
