TOKYO: Japan’s LNG imports edged up 0.2% from a year ago to 7.06 million mt in August, with shipments from Australia rising 25%, according to data released Tuesday by the Ministry of Finance. On a month-on-month basis, LNG imports grew 1.6%.
Australia was the largest supplier in August and sent 1.9 million mt of LNG to Japan, accounting for 27% of overall imports. Imports from Malaysia stood at 1.23 million mt, down 9.6% from a year ago and down 20% from the previous month, making the country the second largest LNG supplier for Japan.
Qatar came in third and exported 1.05 million mt of LNG to Japan, down 5.8% year on year and edging down 0.2% from July. Supplies from Egypt, Angola and Equatorial Guinea were absent in August. An LNG cargo of 52,364 mt was imported from the US at $412.55/mt or $7.934/MMBtu.
Another cargo of 67,297 mt was imported from Spain at the cost of $457.89/mt or $8.806/MMBtu. The Palu LNG delivered Spanish reload to the Senboku terminal on August 28, according to Platts trade flow software cFlow. This was also the first reload cargo from Spain since January.
The Japan Customs Cleared crude oil price was $59.048/b in August, down 47% from a year earlier and falling 7.5% from July. Some of Japan’s long-term LNG contracts are linked to the JCC crude price but with a lag of a few months, so fluctuations in oil prices typically take some time to be reflected in LNG prices.
