State-run Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) said on Sept. 29 it had bought liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from major wholesaler Astomos Energy Corp to store in its national reserves.

JOGMEC on Sept.24 bought 22,000 tonnes of propane via a tender for its stockpiling base in Kurashiki in Okayama prefecture, for delivery until Oct. 27, it said in a statement

JOGMEC said it would not disclose the price.

Oil refiner Idemitsu Kosan Co owns 51 percent of Astomos and trading house Mitsubishi Corp owns the rest.

The deal marked JOGMEC's third LPG tender in the fiscal year that started in April after buying a total of 66,000 tonnes in earlier tenders. Japan's trade ministry last year said it aimed to buy 198,000 tonnes of LPG during 2015/16.

Japan, which has five national LPG stockpiling bases with a total capacity of 1.5 million tonnes, plans to increase the stockpiles to full capacity by the end of March 2018.