Shell makes its first LNG sale to Japan's third-largest utility company

The third largest electric company in Japan, Chubu Electric Power Co., will start receiving liquefied natural gas under a 20-year deal, Shell said Thursday.

"Shell has a long history of supplying natural gas to Japan, and this agreement demonstrates our continued commitment to the country," Maarten Wetselaar, executive vice president for Shell's integrated gas, said in a statement Thursday.

Shell's first LNG sales agreement with Chubu, made through the Dutch company's Singapore-based subsidiary Shell Eastern Trading Ltd., calls for up to 12 deliveries a year, or about 720,000 tons, starting in October.

Shell didn't say from where the LNG would be sourced specifically.

Japan, the second-largest importer of fossil fuels in the world, starting taking on more LNG in response to the shortage of power brought on by the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011.

With 50 years in the LNG business, Wetselaar said, Shell is "well positioned" to respond to changes in energy markets like Japan's.

Chubu in a separate statement said LNG sourced from Shell is a stable answer to its growing fuel needs.