*Surging European demand for LNG may have grabbed the headlines this year (MEES, 29 July) helping send international prices to record levels (MEES, 29 July), but the three big East Asian importers – Japan, China and South Korea – remain by some distance the three largest global importers of the supercooled fuel. Japan took 37.5mn tons and China 31.4mn tons for 1H 2022. Even South Korea, with imports of 22.9mn tons for 1H 2022, took almost twice as much as global number four France (which in turn was narrowly ahead of Asian number four and five importers India and Taiwan, as well as Spain and the UK).
*Basic geography dictates that, Europe’s surge in buying notwithstanding, the bulk of LNG exports from Gulf producers Qatar, Oman and the UAE heads east. (CONTINUED - 1817 WORDS)
