Energy companies weather initial impact of earthquakes in Taiwan

• Taipower nuclear units operating
• Serial aftershocks in Taiwan and Japan
• LNG terminals expect six vessels

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration reported a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 3 April followed by several aftershocks that knocked out power in parts of the capital Taipei and elsewhere with initial assessments showing key energy facilities online.

Earlier, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported a “very shallow” 7.5 magnitude earthquake near Taiwan on 3 April and related aftershocks and issued a tsunami forecast for Okinawa. JMA said that a 30cm tsunami reached Yonaguni Island.

The tsunami forecast was later downgraded to an advisory and lifted for Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The JMA cautioned however for vigilance on aftershocks of similar intensity for “around a week.”

Ship tracking data from ICIS LNG Edge showed six LNG vessels heading into Taiwan terminals, four bound for Yung An and two to Taichung that were confirmed.

As well, utility Taipower said on its website that its two nuclear power stations were not affected by the earthquakes and aftershocks.

Taiwan’s Nuclear No.3 plant is running normally and both units at the plant are running at around a 99% rate, according to state-owned utility Taipower’s update at 11:50am local time on 3 April. Taipower has estimated the maximum power supply capacity today would be 42.63GW and power supply is abundant.

A key manufacturing operation, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC) said it was assessing for any damages, but was initially fine.

“Taiwan experienced a number of earthquakes on the morning of April 3, local time,” TSMC said in a statement on operations. “TSMC’s safety systems are operating normally. To ensure the safety of personnel, some fabs were evacuated according to company procedure. We are currently confirming the details of the impact.”

A resident in Taipei told ICIS that “the aftershocks are frequent and there are power cuts in Taichung and Hualien.

(Roman Kazmin and Yueyi Yang contributed to this article)