Brunei has renewed a supply contract agreement with a Japanese consortium this week to deliver some 3.4 million metric tonnes annually of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for 10 years, effective early 2013.

However, the renewed supply agreement has been reduced by 2.61 million metric tonnes compared from the existing contract, which expires on March 2013.

The Japanese consortium is composed of Tokyo Electric Power Company, Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas, Platts reported, quoting Mohammad Yasmin Umar, energy minister of Brunei. Exact LNG allocations per company were not provided.

Mr Umar revealed that the Japanese consortium, way before the March 2011 earth and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan that resulted to the eventual destruction of the Fukushima power plant, had expressed to renew the supply contract agreement but at only 1 million metric tonnes per year. The Brunei energy minister did not give details as to why the Japanese consortium wanted to reduce their purchase of the chilled LNG.

But when the March 2011 earth and tsunami struck, Japan asked for 2 million metric tonnes per year, Mr Umar said. However, "we decided to give them 2.4 million metric tonnes more per year."

The increased request for additional LNG supplies understandably comes as a result of the consortium's need to immediately support and feed the energy requirements of the country which has been relying on nuclear energy for most of its power mix. For one, Tepco had been forced to boost power generation using various fossil fuels, such as coal, crude, fuel oil and LNG.

Data from the Japanese finance ministry showed Brunei listed as Japan's 6th largest LNG supplier in 2011, delivering 6.33 million metric tonnes, a hike of 8.2 per cent from a year ago. Japan is the world's largest LNG importer. Its LNG imports in 2011 rose 12.2 per cent from a year ago to 78.53 million metric tonnes.

"We are happy with the current bilateral relationship with Japan, and we are also committed to support Japan for any energy requirements in the future," Mr Umar said.

The Brunei energy minister said the sales and purchase agreement between the parties will be signed on September.