Japanese liquefied natural gas imports dropped by 8.7 percent in January as more coal and nuclear power generation offset the need for LNG cargoes, though the cost of the LNG rose by more than 15 percent compared with a year ago.
Shipments to Japan in January amounted to 7.54 million tonnes compared with 8.26MT in January 2018.
The December 2018 imports had amounted to 7.25MT compared with 7.95MT in December 2017.
Nine of Japan's nuclear power plants, which numbered 54 on line before the Fukushima disaster in 2011, have re-started to reduce LNG needs.
A rise in January thermal coal imports also helped offset the drop in LNG cargoes. Coal shipments rose 7 percent in January compared with the year-ago period to 10.67MT.
The cost of the January 2019 cargoes came in at 479.22 billion yen ($4.32Bln), a rise of 15.3 percent from the 416.29Bln yen ($3.75Bln) the cargoes cost in the same month a year ago.
The Ministry of Finance data for January showed that Asian LNG shipments from nations such as Malaysia and Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Brunei dropped 25.8 percent to 1.91MT.
Imports from the Middle East region fell 23.7 percent year-on-year, with shipments from countries like Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman totalling 1.48MT in January 2019.
US shipments of LNG amounted to 267,000 tonnes, a rise of 36 percent on the same month last year.
Japan imported 2.49MT of US cargoes in 2018 and that figure will rise in 2019 as the nation will be importing more cargoes.
These will come from the Cheniere Energy-owned Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana and the Cove Point plant in Maryland operated by Dominion Energy, as well as the newest Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana set to start operations under Sempra Energy and with Japanese shareholders.
Monthly Russian shipments from the Sakhalin Island plant in the Far East declined 7.6 percent in January to 617,000 tonnes.
The balance of imports from other countries amounted to 3.26MT, with most volumes coming from Australia, backed by shipments from African nations and the spot market.
Japanese LNG imports had declined by 0.9 percent in 2018. The 2018 imports amounted to 82.85MT versus 83.63MT received in 2017.
Japan’s 2018 import bill was 20.8 percent higher than in 2017 at 4,730Bln yen ($43.14Bln), according to the Finance Ministry. Japan had paid 19.3 percent more in 2017 with an LNG bill of 3,915Bln yen ($35.58Bln).
