Japan’s annual LNG imports drop for first time in six years

Japan’s imports of liquefied natural gas reached 85.05 million mt in 2015, a drop of 3.9 percent as compared to the year before.

This is the first drop in Japan’s annual LNG imports since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 which caused Japan to shut down its nuclear industry. Japan imported record 88.51 million mt of LNG in 2014.

The world’s largest buyer of chilled gas paid $46.66 billion for LNG imports last year as global oil and gas prices fell, down 29.5 percent from $66.67 billion the country paid for imports in 2014, preliminary data from Japan’s Ministry of Finance reveals.

According to the data by the Ministry, Japan imported 8.08 million mt of LNG in December, down 2.2 percent as compared to the same month a year ago.

Japan’s power utilities

LNG use by Japan’s ten independent regional electric power companies dropped 14.2 percent in December when compared to the same month in 2014.

The companies consumed 4.60 million mt of liquefied natural gas in December, data from the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) reveals. December purchases by the ten utilities reached 5.19 million mt of LNG.

According to FEPC, total electricity generated and purchased across the ten companies in December declined by 9.9 percent to 75.26 billion kWh, due to decreased heating demands caused by relatively higher temperatures in December than the previous year.

 

LNG World News Staff