Japan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports rose for the third consecutive month in July after logging a decline in March-April.
The country received 6.18 million tonnes of LNG last month, up 2.5 percent when compared to the same month last year, according to the provisional data released by the country’s Ministry of Finance.
Compared to the previous month when Japan took 5.70 million tonnes, LNG imports rose by 8.5 percent.
LNG supplies in July cost Japan about $3.13 billion, a rise of 41.9 percent year-on-year.
The average contract-based price for spot LNG cargoes shipped to Japan in July reached $12.2/mmBtu, state-run Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) said. The arrival-based price reached 11.6/mmBtu, it said.
Looking at last month’s LNG shipments, deliveries from Asia from countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia increased by 24.6 percent to 1.44 million tonnes, the ministry’s data shows.
Middle East LNG shipments from sources like Qatar dropped by 8.8 percent to 886,000 tonnes.
Additionally, shipments from Russia surged 94.7 percent to 761,000 tonnes while US deliveries rose 30.9 percent to 611,000 tonnes.
Japan is still the world’s largest LNG importer and the country took 74.4 million tonnes of LNG last year.
However, China is expected to overtake Japan this year. China imported 45.25 million tonnes while Japan received about 45.05 million tonnes in the January-July period.