Japan is likely to turn to liquefied natural gas to meet its energy needs as it recovers from its earthquake, the head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Thursday.

Responding to a question about how Japan would handle the loss of some nuclear power generation as a result of the quake, EIA Administrator Richard Newell said that "if you look at past experience, the bigger impact has been on natural gas in terms of meeting incremental needs."

"You can tend to be able to ramp up natural gas more quickly" rather than coal, fuel oil, or other sources, Newell said. "If you're changing things on the margin, you tend to turn more toward natural gas."

Besides nuclear power, Japan gets much of its energy from liquefied natural gas, fuel oil, and coal, Newell said. Japan gets about 27 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, he said.

Newell said, however, that changes in Japan's ability to produce energy for electricity have had so far a relatively small impact on global energy prices.

"The major factor that seems to have weighed on markets in terms of Japan has been a downward impact due to decreased economic activity and energy consumption," Newell said.

"The U.S. prices for natural gas tend to be determined on a North American basis," he added.

An earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11 knocked a nuclear power plant offline in Japan and destroyed other infrastructure, particularly on the northeast coast of the country's largest island.
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