South Korea boosts January LNG imports

South Korea, the world’s second-largest buyer of LNG, boosted its imports of the chilled fuel by 27.4 percent in January year-on-year on the back of low winter temperatures.

The country imported 4.29 million mt of LNG in January, as compared to 3.37 million mt in the corresponding month the year before, according to the customs data.

This is the second straight month that South Korea’s imports were above the 4 million mt mark as demand for LNG for power generation rose due to the colder-than-usual temperatures in the midst of the heating season.

South Korea paid about $1.77 billion for December imports, the data showed.

The world’s largest LNG exporter, Qatar, remained the dominant source of South Korean imports with 1.4 million mt of the chilled fuel imported from Qatar in January.

Australia was the second-largest LNG supplier to Korea in January with 806,795 mt.

The remaining volumes imported into South Korea were sourced from Oman, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru, Brunei, Nigeria, the United States, Angola, Papua New Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, and Singapore.

LNG World News Staff