Taiwan Pays Record Price for LNG Imports in March

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

29 Apr 2008

Taiwan, Asia's fourth-largest importer of liquefied natural gas, increased imports of the fuel by 33 percent in March and paid record prices since imports started in 1990 as global demand surged. CPC Corp., Taiwan's only LNG importer, bought 1.75 million kiloliters of the fuel, or 793,000 metric tons, at $694 a ton, or $13.2 per million British thermal units, the government's Energy Bureau said in an e-mailed statement today. Shipments rose 71 percent and prices gained 3 percent from a month earlier.
``Due to the low temperature in February, LNG stocks dropped as a result of rise in demand,'' said Juen-shen Wei, an official with Taiwan's Energy Bureau. "To restore the stockpile of LNG and to prepare for future needs, the CPC imported more LNG in March than in February."
The island imports more than 95 percent of its natural gas needs, with generators accounting for about 75 percent of LNG consumption. LNG prices climbed last year after the closure of the world's biggest nuclear power plant in Japan resulted in a surge in Asian imports.
CPC paid the most for LNG from Indonesia at $803 a ton, or about 37 percent higher than the benchmark U.S. gas at Henry Hub.
Taiwan bought 37 percent of its LNG from the spot market in March as multiyear contracts with Indonesia, Malaysia and Qatar failed to meet soaring demand for the heating and industrial fuel, the report said. That compares with spot sales accounting for about 19 percent of global LNG traded last year, according to U.K. shipping broker LNG Shipping Solutions.
Nigeria was the biggest supplier of spot cargoes, at 384,000 kiloliters, followed by Equatorial Guinea and Trinidad & Tobago.
Taiwan's liquefied natural gas imports in 2007 rose 6.8 percent to a record 18.14 million kiloliters, the energy bureau said Jan. 28. The island spent $4.28 billion last year, more than the $3.68 billion on 16.99 million kiloliters in 2006.

Source: Bloomberg