Liquefied natural gas (LNG) use by Japan’s power companies dropped 7.6 percent in October when compared to the previous month.
The power companies consumed 4.12 million mt of LNG in October, as compared to 4.45 million mt in September, the preliminary data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed.
October purchases by the ten utilities were at 4.39 million mt of LNG, down less than 1 percent as compared to 4.43 million mt in September.
Japan’s ten independent regional electric power companies stopped publishing power output and demand numbers in April to ensure fair competition after the liberalisation of the retail power market.
Currently, METI’s data is the only official data available on the monthly power statistics. The ministry surveys hundreds of companies that are in the power business.
Japan, the world’s largest buyer of LNG, imported 83.34 million mt of LNG in 2016, a drop of 2 percent as compared to the year before.
This was the second drop in Japan’s annual LNG imports since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 which caused Japan to shut down its nuclear industry.
LNG World News Staff