Kogas bumps 2017 LNG imports as loss widens

South Korea’s LNG importing giant Kogas reported a 3.8 percent increase in imports of liquefied natural gas for the year 2017 in comparison to the previous year. 

According to the company’s latest report, imports for the year 2017 reached 33.06 million tons, 1.2 million tons higher compared to the import volumes in 2016.

The report notes that the volumes were delivered under 15 long-term import deals from 10 different countries.

Kogas said that its cumulative sales volumes, up to the fourth quarter decreased by 1.9 percent year on year to 32.2 million tons.

While the city gas sector increased by 1.1 million tons, the power sector dropped by 1.6 million tons. this was due to higher utilization of baseload power and volume hike in direct import LNG, the company said.

The company also reported a widening net loss of 1.2 trillion won ($1.09 billion) mostly due to impairment losses of Iraw Akkas project, the Santos-led Gladstone LNG project and the Prelude FLNG project in Australia.