Japan’s power utilities use less LNG in Jan

LNG use by Japan’s ten independent regional electric power companies dropped 4 percent in January when compared to the same month in 2015.

The power companies consumed 4.99 million mt of liquefied natural gas in December, preliminary data from the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) reveals.

According to the data, January purchases by the ten utilities were at 4.62 million mt of LNG, down 12.8 percent from 2015.

According to FEPC, total electricity generated and purchased across the ten companies in January declined by 3.2 percent to 81.08 billion kWh, due to “decreased heating demands caused by relatively higher temperatures” in January than the previous year.

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.

As of February this year, Japan has restarted three nuclear reactors. According to FEPC, Japan’s nuclear power generation in January was at 1.40 billion kWh.

LNG World News Staff