According to The Gas Review, on 22nd February, Taiyo Nippon Sanso (TNSC) concluded an agreement through its US affiliate Matheson Tri-Gas with Gazprom to import and distribute helium (He) of Russian origin as the first Japanese company.
Gazprom will set up a plant to liquefy He from its East Siberian natural gas field aiming to complete in 2021, while TNSC will supply He to not only the domestic market, but also to China, Korea, Taiwan and the Far East Asia.
TNSC has been negotiating with Gazprom for about ten years keeping an eye on the prospective He source in the East Siberia of Russia following the source in the US. This time it has borne fruit in the long-term sales agreement of He with Gazprom Export, which is Gazprom’s affiliate in charge of sales.
In 2012, both companies concluded a memorandum on the development of He. Although the term and amount of the agreement at this time have not been disclosed in detail, it is a long-term contract for over ten years and they say that an expected total output of the He project could be 720 million f3, or 20 million m3 per annum in the initial year. Ultimately, three times more output is estimated equivalent to 60 million m3. At the ultimate stage, TNSC’s scale of He business could be 1.5 times more than existing volume handled.
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