Home > Chemical News

Chemical News

Japan's February LNG imports rise 13.5% on year to 7.73 mil mt

http://www.chemnet.com   Mar 31,2015 Platts
Japan's LNG imports in February rose 13.5% year on year to 7.73 million mt, data released Monday by the Ministry of Finance showed.

The increase was largely due to new contracts starting from the Papua New Guinea project, as well as increased LNG supplied from Qatar.

Qatar, Australia and Malaysia supplied a combined 58.5% of Japan's imports in February, with Qatar sending the largest volumes during the month at 1.73 million mt, an increase of 36.3% from a year earlier, and up 13.5% from January.

Supplies from Australia rose 1.5% on the year to 1,450,277 mt, while Malaysia's exports to Japan fell 8.1%. Supplies from both Australia and Malaysia were both lower on the month, with Australia down 13.1% from January, and Malaysia down 13.9% from January volumes.
Yemen, Algeria, and Norway all supplied single February-delivered cargoes to Japan. Yemen sent a cargo at a cost of $520.37/mt ($10.01/MMBtu), Algeria sent 61,571 mt at a cost of $604.77/mt (11.63/MMBtu), and Norway sent a 60,913 mt cargo at a cost of $631.89/mt ($12.15/MMBtu).

The JKM for February delivery averaged $9.911/MMBtu over the December 16-January 15 assessment period.

Whereas in previous years, when Japan imported more Atlantic cargoes to meet its end-of-winter peak demand needs, this winter season was characterized by anemic incremental demand from most power utilities, as power companies managed high LNG inventory levels that had been building over a warmer winter season.

As such, no reloads from the Atlantic, from either the Netherlands or Spain, were recorded during the month.

Preliminary data released by the MOF showed the Japan Customs Cleared crude oil price was $49.453/barrel in February, down a sharp 55.4% year on year and 22.4% from a month earlier.

The majority of Japan's long-term LNG contracts are linked to the JCC crude price, but with a lag of a few months. Fluctuations in oil prices typically take some time to be reflected in LNG prices.
 Print  |    add to Favorites  |    Close