Taiwan, the world’s fifth largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyer, boosted its imports of the chilled fuel by 4.7 percent in January .
Taiwan imported 1.19 million mt of LNG in January, as compared to 1.13 million mt in the same month in 2016, according to the data released by the Directorate General of Customs.
The country paid about $435 million for LNG imports in January, the data shows.
Qatar, the world’s top LNG exporter, remained the biggest supplier of the fuel to Taiwan in January.
LNG imports from Qatar reached 498,981 mt, followed by Indonesia that supplied 307,994 mt of the chilled fuel and Australia with 118,823 mt.
The rest of the LNG imports in January came from Papua New Guinea, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and Nigeria.
To remind, Taiwan’s 2016 LNG imports rose 2.7 percent to 14.97 million mt.
With less reliance on nuclear power and dwindling domestic natural gas resources, Taiwan is expected to increase its LNG imports in the future to drive power sector growth.
The country currently imports the chilled fuel via two regasification terminals, located in the central and southern parts of the island.
State-owned CPC is also planning to build a third LNG import terminal to serve the northern region near Taipei.
LNG World News Staff