Japan’s November LNG imports drop 5.3 percent

LNG cargoes that were delivered in Japan within the month of October regardless of the month when the contracts were made (arrival-based price) was not disclosed as there were less than two companies that imported spot LNG.

JOGMEC previously said that the arrival-based and contract-based prices were at $13.6/MMBtu and $13.7/MMBtu in October.

LNG inventories

METI previously announced that Japan’s LNG inventories for power generation stood at 2.05 million tonnes as of November 3, up from 2 million tonnes the previous week.

According to METI, inventories stood at 2.14 million tonnes on November 10, 2.20 million tonnes on November 17, 2.06 million tonnes on November 24, 1.89 million tonnes on December 1, 2.12 million tonnes on December 8, and 2.24 million tonnes on December 15.

Deliveries to Japan

As per LNG shipments going to Japan in November, deliveries from Asia increased by 8.3 percent to 1.25 million tonnes, the ministry’s data shows.

Middle East LNG shipments decreased by 38.1 percent to 475,000 tonnes in November.

Moreover, shipments from Russia decreased by 26.9 percent to 479,000 tonnes, while US deliveries increased by 17.8 percent to 524,000 tonnes in November.

Second largest LNG importer

China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s top importer of LNG last year and will remain the top importer this year.

China’s LNG imports rose 12.6 percent to about 71.32 million tonnes in the January-December period, and the country imported 5.17 million tonnes more LNG than Japan in 2023.

During January-November this year, China imported 69.61 million tonnes of LNG, a rise of 10.7 percent year over year.

Japan imported some 10 million tonnes of LNG less than China during the same period.