Asian Utilities May Have Cut Spot LNG Purchases in September

By Dinakar Sethuraman

Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Asian utilities buyers may have reduced their imports of liquefied natural gas spot cargoes in September because of lower demand and higher supplies to Europe, ship-tracking data and government statistics showed.

Utilities including Tokyo Electric Power Corp. and Korea Gas Corp. may have bought at least 14 LNG cargoes from the Atlantic Ocean area for delivery this month compared with 23 cargoes in July and at least 15 cargoes a year earlier, according to transmissions from ships captured by AISLive on Bloomberg and official data. The figures for August are incomplete.

``There are quite a lot of spot cargoes landing up in Europe instead of Asia,'' said Olga Vedernikova, a broker at LNG Shipping Solutions, said by telephone from London.

Demand for spot LNG cargoes in Asia has declined in the past two months after record fuel prices curbed demand in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, and inventories climbed. Prices of spot shipments have declined by about 10 percent from a record $20 per million British thermal units, excluding transportation, reached in July, based on government statistics.

Japan's power utilities bought 4.5 percent less LNG in August than a year earlier, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan. The power companies held 412,093 tons of LNG in stockpiles in August, compared with about 103,000 tons in July.

Spain's liquefied natural gas purchases may increase by about a third in the September quarter because of higher demand from power plants, according to a Sept. 8 report by Pan EurAsian Enterprises, a U.S. energy consultant.

Demand Drop

The decline in September supplies was led by China, which may have bought only one cargo from the Atlantic Ocean area compared with three in July and one in August, ship tracking data and Chinese customs figures showed.

Indian spot imports, which have averaged three a month in the past few months, may fall after prices of naphtha, an alternate fuel for fertilizer and power plants, declined about 31 percent from a record $135.45 a barrel on July 4. LNG imports were led by the Royal Dutch Shell Plc-operated Hazira LNG terminal.

South Korea bought at least two cargoes from the Atlantic Ocean area this month compared with a similar number in July and August, the ship tracking data and Korea International Trade Statistics showed. It bought one cargo a year earlier.

Taiwan bought five spot cargoes in July. Data for August and September are unavailable. Taiwan Power Co., the island's monopoly grid operator, posted a 6.1 percent decline in electricity sales last month compared with a year earlier, which may push down LNG sales, Wei Juen-shen, an energy bureau planning official, said in August.

Japan, the world's biggest LNG buyer, may have bought at least nine cargoes this month from the Altantic Ocean area, unchanged from July and a year earlier, ship tracking data and finance ministry data showed. Purchases in August may have declined as lower-than-normal temperatures reduced cooling demand, a government report said. The August data will be released at the end of this month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at dinakar@bloomberg.net