The state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and private sector financial institutions have agreed to provide another loan to Jera to help it fund LNG purchases.
JBIC said in a statement on Monday it had signed the loan agreement worth about 100 billion yen ($673 million) with Jera.
This loan would be co-financed with private financial institutions, it said.
This follows a similar loan JBIC and Jera signed earlier this month.
The bank said the new loan would provide the necessary funds for Jera to import LNG as prices continue to rise and to ensure a stable supply of electricity in Japan.
“As Japan’s public financial institution, JBIC will continue to actively support efforts by companies to secure a stable supply of important resources and contribute to Japan’s energy security,” it said.
Japan is looking to ensure winter LNG supply after the domestic electricity price soared last winter and the country experienced power shortages due to tight supply and demand, following severe cold weather and low LNG inventories.
Jera recently said it would resume operations at the sixth unit of its Anegasaki thermal power station in Chiba to provide additional capacity for this winter.
Japan, the world’s largest LNG importer this year, mostly receives LNG under long-term contracts from countries such as Australia, Malaysia, Qatar, and the US, but also from the spot market.
LNG prices surged this year and Japan paid about $6.08 billion for its LNG imports in August and about $5.85 billion for September imports.
Japan took about 55.27 million tonnes of LNG in the January-September period.
