Japan’s Inpex said yesterday that it has made arrangements for a ‘carbon neutral’ shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG project in Australia to be delivered to compatriot Toho Gas.
The shipment of carbon-neutral LNG is expected to arrive at Chita LNG Terminal in Chita City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan on September 18, 2021.
“The carbon footprint of the LNG shipment has been offset using carbon credits applied to greenhouse gas emissions across the entire natural gas supply chain including upstream production, liquefaction, transportation, regasification, marketing and combustion by customers in Japan. The carbon credits used to offset the shipment’s carbon footprint meet the Verified Carbon Standard deriving from greenhouse gas reduction efforts at global forest conservation projects,” claimed Inpex.
Over the past year or so, LNG producers, as well as buyers in North Asia, particularly Japan, have been quick to announce their involvement with so called ‘carbon-neutral LNG’ cargoes. However, some LNG buyers at the recent Future Energy Asia conference questioned whether LNG can really be carbon neutral.
“There is no industry-wide definition for ‘carbon neutral’ LNG, nor is there a set way to calculate emissions. But companies, especially end-users in Japan, are eager to purchase these types of shipments as they are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint,” Stephen Stapczynski, an Asia-focused LNG specialist at Bloomberg, said on Twitter following Petronas’ announcement last month that it had delivered its first carbon neutral LNG cargo.