Chevron to supply Japan's Tohoku Electric with LNG for 20 years 

(MENAFN) Chevron Corp agreed to deliver one million tonnes of liquefied natural gas per year for 20 years to Japan's Tohoku Electric , Reuters reported.

Under the agreement, the LNG shipments gas will come from its Wheatstone plant in Australia, according to Roy Krzywosinski, Chevron Austalia's managing director.

Wheatstone, located off the coast of Western Australia, is currently under construction, with the first gas shipments expected in 2016.

Tohoku is one of several Asian utilities to buy supplies from Wheatstone, including Chubu Electric Power, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and Kyushu Electric.

Japan's dependence on gas-fired power is increasing as it seeks to replace the nuclear capacity that has been taken offline since last year's earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Chevron plans to boost production from the USD29 billion Wheatstone LNG plant to 25 million tonnes per year, as it seeks to become one of the largest LNG producers in Australia.

Chevron has another gas project in Australia, the USD37 billion Gorgon project, which is poised to produce 15 million tonnes per year by 2014.

Australia is expected to surpass Qatar as the top LNG exporter by the end of the decade, when it would have quadrupled its current production of about 20 million tonnes per year.