Markets: Japan’s February LNG imports slide

Japanese imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) during the month of February dropped 11.4 percent 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 7.35 million tonnes of LNG last month compared to 8.29 million tonnes in February 2018, the data shows.

The value of January LNG imports was about $4.18 billion, a rise of 8.6 percent on year.

The data shows that imports of US LNG rocketed by 139.6 percent, reaching 335,000 tonnes, while imports from Asian sources such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Brunei declined 20 percent compared to the corresponding month in 2018, reaching 2.04 million tonnes.

Imports of liquefied natural gas from the Middle East reached 1.55 million tonnes, 1.8 percent above the corresponding month in 2018. LNG imports from Russia reached 604,000 slipping 15 percent over February 2018.

The country’s coal imports for power generation dropped by 2.2 percent to 9.24 million tonnes, the data shows.

LNG World News Staff