South Korea, the world’s second-largest LNG importer, is to increase its domestic natural gas prices to reflect higher LNG import costs.
The country will increase retail natural gas prices for households and industry by an average of 3.1 percent from May 1, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a statement on Friday.
This marks the second hike this year as international oil prices rose, boosting the country’s LNG import costs.
State-owned Kogas, which has a monopoly on domestic natural gas sales, imports LNG mostly via long-term contracts that are tied to crude prices.
South Korea imported 3.53 million mt of LNG in March, up by 3 percent year-on-year, according to customs data.
The country paid about $1.43 billion for March imports, the data showed.
LNG World News Staff