JERA, the joint venture of Japanese power utilities TEPCO and Chubu Electric, has signed a Sales and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Centrica (United Kingdom) for the sale of up to six LNG cargoes (around 0.5 Mt/year) of LNG over a 5-year period starting in April 2019. The price of LNG will be linked with European gas market price and the volume sold can be adjusted by JERA's discretion.
The JERA joint venture was created by Japanese power utilities in late 2015 to join force in fuel procurement (LNG, oil and coal), upstream development and gas investments. In March 2016, JERA signed a preliminary tolling agreement with Veresen on the Jordan Cove LNG facility (United States), to purchase at least 1.5 Mt/year of LNG liquefaction capacity at the 6 Mt/year liquefaction project in Oregon (commissioning expected in 2019 at the earliest). JERA will also sell 1.5 Mt of LNG to EDF Trading over a 2.5-year period starting in June 2018.