South Korea boosts Aug LNG imports despite weaker demand

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports into South Korea, the world’s second-largest buyer of the fuel, rose 32 percent in August despite weaker domestic demand for the fuel in the gas-to-power sector.

The country imported 2.60 million mt of LNG in July as compared to 1.97 million mt in the corresponding month the year before, according to the customs data.

The data shows that South Korea paid about $1.1 billion for LNG imports last month.

Qatar, the world’s biggest LNG exporter, remained the dominant source of South Korean imports with 0.95 million mt of the chilled fuel imported from Qatar in August, up by 15.5 percent on year.

Australia was the second-largest LNG supplier to Korea last month with 0.37 million mt, followed by Oman and Indonesia with 0.30 million mt, each.

The remaining volumes imported into South Korea last month were sourced from USA, Malaysia, Norway, Russia and Brunei.

To remind, South Korea’s Kogas, that imports about 96 percent of the country’s demand, reported last week an 11.8 percent decrease in its domestic natural gas sales in August.

Kogas sold 1.94 million mt of LNG equivalent last month, as compared to 2.19 million mt in August 2016 as sales in the power generation sector dropped 21.2 percent.

South Korea is expected to continue boosting its imports of the chilled for power generation as part of a plan to reduce reliance on coal and nuclear plants.

The country reportedly aims to lift its power production capacity by up to a tenth by 2030, mostly using LNG and renewable energy.

LNG World News Staff