GLNG: Japanese LNG purchasers facing oversupply issue

Rapidly declining demand for LNG in Japan is expected to cause an oversupply by more than 11mn tonnes per year (tpy) for the rest of the decade, a new report published on March 11 by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found.

The decline in domestic consumer demand is expected to drive Japan’s four biggest utilities, namely, JERA, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Kansai Electric, to assume a bigger role in the resupply market.

In the past, Japan had been a market that would consume all of its LNG imports. However, this has gradually been changing with the country slowly increasing LNG sales to international companies.