Japanese imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) declined 8.7 percent in January when compared to the same month a year ago, according to the provisional data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance.

Japan, the world’s top LNG buyer, imported 7.55 million tonnes of LNG last month compared to 8.26 million tonnes in January 2018, the data shows.

The value of January LNG imports was about $4.33 billion, a rise of 15.3 percent on year.

The data shows that imports of US LNG rose by 36.1 percent, reaching 267,000 tonnes, while imports from Asian sources such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Brunei declined 25.8 percent compared to the corresponding month in 2018, reaching 1.91 million tonnes.

Imports of liquefied natural gas from the Middle East and Russia reached 1.48 million tonnes and 617,000 tonnes, representing a 23.7 and 7.6 percent drop, respectively.

The country’s coal imports for power generation rose in January by 7 percent to 10.67 million tonnes, the data shows.

LNG World News Staff