South Korea LNG Imports Climbs 29 Percent as Domestic Use Rises - Bloomberg

Posted -  May 14, 2013 9:49 PM ET - By Sungwoo Park - Bloomberg

Liquefied natural gas imports by South Korea, the world’s second-largest buyer of the fuel, rose 29 percent in April as domestic demand increased.
Shipments climbed to 3.51 million metric tons from 2.72 million a year earlier, according to data on the Korea Customs Service’s website today. The monthly volume dropped from 4.16 million tons in March.
The total cost of last month’s purchases increased to $2.61 billion from $2.15 billion in the same month a year earlier, the data showed today. The average price paid declined to $742.62 per ton from $790.73 a year ago.
South Korea buys most of its LNG under multiyear contracts from suppliers including Qatar, Indonesia and Oman. April’s purchases included a spot shipment of 61,189 tons from Equatorial Guinea at $885.29 a ton, the data show.
State-run Korea Gas Corp. (036460), the world’s biggest LNG buyer, said May 10 that its April domestic sales of gas increased 10 percent to 3.21 million tons from a year earlier. Demand from electricity producers rose 5.2 percent, while that from local city gas providers climbed 16 percent, it said.

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