Japan's March LNG imports were up 6.6% from February to 6.67 million mt but down slightly by 0.6% year-on-year, customs data released Thursday by the Ministry of Finance showed.
The largest exporter to Japan was Malaysia, providing 1.56 million mt, up 28.1% year-on-year and 18.3% month-on-month. Australia was second with 1.21 million mt, up 8.1% from February but down 10.9% from the same time last year.
The most expensive imports were from Qatar, priced at an average of $730.47/mt ($14.05/MMBtu). The cheapest cargoes were from Oman, priced at an average of $452.43/mt ($8.70/MMBtu).
Overall, Japan paid an average $644.04/mt ($12.39/MMBtu) for its LNG in March, up 3% from February.
The Japan Customs Cleared crude oil price in February was $102.966/barrel, up 7.4% month-on-month and 34.7% higher from March 2010.
Term LNG contracts tend to be linked to the JCC crude price, but with a lag of a few months, so the rise in oil prices typically takes some time to feed through to LNG prices.
