Japan’s 2014 LNG imports climb

Japan, the world’s biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas, imported 88.51 million tonnes of LNG in 2014, up 1.2 percent from 2013, the country’s Ministry of Finance said on Monday.

Japan paid a record $66.67 billion for LNG imports in 2014, a rise of 11.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data.

The country imported 8.26 million tonnes of LNG in December, up 2.1 percent compared to the same month in 2013.

Japan’s LNG imports have been rising steadily year on year, due to the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 which caused Japan to shut down its nuclear industry.

The country’s imports of crude oil dropped 5.5 percent last year to 3,449,000 barrels per day.