Japan’s LNG imports to drop in the next 2 years, IEEJ says

For illustration only (Image courtesy of Tokyo Electric)

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports into Japan, the world’s largest buyer of the fuel, are expected to decline in fiscal 2017 and 2018 as more nuclear reactors come back online, according to the Institute of Energy Economics Japan.

Since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 which caused Japan to shut down its nuclear industry, the country’s LNG imports have been surging to replace the loss of nuclear power generation.

However, in 2015, nuclear reactors began to restart easing Japan’s dependence on the chilled fuel.

Japan’s LNG imports are expected to decline 3.1 percent to 82.1 million tonnes in fiscal 2017 that started on April 1, the government-associated think tank said in a report released last week.

The country’s LNG imports are set to further decline by 2.3 percent to 80.3 million tonnes in fiscal 2018, it said.

IEEJ’s estimates for the decline in LNG imports are based on the assumption that five more nuclear reactors will come online by the end of fiscal 2018 bringing the total number of operational nuclear stations to ten.

The think tank also expects Japanese economy, as measured by real GDP, to grow by 1.4 percent in fiscal 2017 and 1.1 percent in fiscal 2018.

 

LNG World News Staff