(EnergyAsia, June 19 2012, Tuesday) — Japan’s largest electric utility has agreed to increase its purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and equity stake from the Chevron-led Wheatstone gas project in Western Australia state for an undisclosed amount.

According to the US major, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has signed to purchase an additional 400,000 tons per year (t/y) of LNG, and through a related company, will acquire from Chevron a 10% participating interest in the Wheatstone field licences and an eight percent interest in its natural gas processing facilities.

Building on previous agreements including its share of production from equity holding, the latest deals will increase TEPCO’s total Wheatstone LNG offtake to 4.2 million tons/year. TEPCO had earlier agreed to purchase a total of 3.1 million t/y from Wheatstone’s owners, Chevron, Apache Corp and Kuwait’s Kufpec.

Roy Krzywosinski, managing director of Chevron Australia, said:

“More than 80% of Chevron’s equity LNG from Wheatstone is covered under long-term off-take agreements with customers in Asia. These agreements continue to demonstrate Wheatstone is well-placed geographically to meet the Asia Pacific region’s demand for a safe, reliable and cleaner-burning source of energy.”

With its foundation phase comprising two LNG trains with a combined capacity of 8.9 million t/y and a domestic plant, the US$29-billion Wheatstone project at Ashburton North 12 km west of Onslow is one of Australia’s largest resource projects.

TEPCO and other Japanese utilities and energy companies are stepping up their plans to invest in oil and gas projects abroad to compensate for the loss of the country’s nuclear energy capacity following the earthquake-tsunami tragedy of March 11 2011. Nuclear power used to supply 30% of Japan’s electricity.