Saudi Aramco has started recently exclusively supplying propane and butane to Japan's ambitious 1.5 million tons national liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stockpiling project. The very large gas carrier "Energy Orpheus" carried the first shipment of liquefied petroleum gas for Japan's national stockpiling project, according to a press release of Saudi Aramco. The very large gas carrier "Energy Orpheus" arrived recently at the newly constructed Nanao LPG import terminal on the central Japan Sea coast to discharge 32,400 metric tons of propane and 12,000 metric tons of butane from Ras Tanura. It was the first shipment in the national LPG stockpiling project. Nanao, with a 250,000-metric-ton tank capacity, is the first in a series of five terminals planned to be finished by 2009. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) had decided to secure 176,000 metric tons of LPG, the whole requirement for 2005, exclusively from Saudi Aramco and assigned the job to Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, the press release said. Saudi Aramco's marketing organization, both in Dhahran and Tokyo, was instrumental in finalizing the transaction.
