Japan Nuclear Restart To Speed Up LNG Import Fall

Kansai Electric’s relaunch of the last idle reactor at its flagship nuclear plant will create the sharpest shift away from LNG imports since the Fukushima disaster in 2011, according to the Japan Times.

• "Lower LNG demand due to the higher utilization of nuclear in Japan ... will provide downward pressure on LNG spot prices in Asia," said Yoko Nobuoka, senior analyst for Japan power research at Refinitiv.
• Nobuka estimates that Japan's LNG demand may fall by 6-7m mt in 2023, compared to the 72 million mt of imports in 2022; around 3m mt would be due to nuclear restarts.
• Japan's LNG imports in H1 2023 have declined 13% on the year to 32.6m mt, according to Ministry of Finance data.
• Tohoku Electric Power said it plans to relaunch its Onagawa No.2 reactor in February, while Chugoku Electric Power and Tokyo Electric Power are awaiting regulatory approvals to restart reactors.
• These subsequent restarts would add an additional combined 3 GW of nuclear capacity.