Platts: Osaka Gas Chief Rules out Japanese LNG Spot Market for Near Term

“Japan’s second-largest city gas supplier, Osaka Gas, doesn’t expect a spot LNG market to develop in Tokyo in the near future, company president Hiroshi Ozaki said Tuesday. ‘The trade pattern between Japan and many [LNG] producers is a single flow,’ Ozaki told the Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur. . . . According to data from Poten & Partners, quoted by Osaka Gas, Asia’s traditional LNG buyers–Japan, South Korea and Taiwan–imported 98.3 million mt of LNG in 2009, down 8.3% from 2008 in the wake of the global financial crisis. Meanwhile, China imported 5.4 million mt and India 9.4 million mt.”