KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia exported 1.81 million mt of LNG in April, down 13.3% year on year, according to data released by Malaysia’s Department of Statistics.
April exports were down 18% from March.
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The main reason for the drop was slowing demand from Japanese term buyers.
Japan imported a total of 1.13 million mt of Malaysian LNG in April, down 13.7% year on year and a sharp 27.2% drop from March.
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Japanese utilities combined hold slightly more than 13 million mt/year of long-term contracts, meaning that Japanese buyers receive more than 1 million mt/month of LNG from Malaysia on term contracts.
However, as of the end of March, Japanese gas utilities were reporting 1.85 million mt of LNG in stock, a build of 47.7% from a year ago and an increase of 20.7% from February.
The high inventories have prompted Japanese buyers to lower import volumes and decrease spot purchases. Japan’s LNG imports from Malaysia were last lower in July at 881,283 mt.
On the receiving side, Malaysia imported two cargoes into its 3.8 million mt/year LNG receiving terminal in Melaka on Peninsular Malaysia, from Algeria and Qatar, the data showed.
A 67,115-mt cargo from Algeria was imported at a price of MR123,461,495 ($33.8 million), or $9.75/MMBtu, and BW GDF Suez Paris on April 1, Platts cFlow showed.
A single cargo from Qatar also arrived on the Stena Blue Sky on April 22, Platts cFlow showed.
Based on Platts’ earlier analysis, Malaysian imports for April were previously estimated at 130,000 mt.
