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Japan’s LNG Demand to Drop 8% YoY This Summer

LNG

Japan’s LNG demand is forecast to decline by 8% year on year this summer – April to September - to 27.4mn tons as natural gas use for power generation is expected to decline due to higher coal and nuclear generation according to BNEF.

  • Gas demand for power generation is forecast to fall by 15% on the year to 2.8mn tons this summer. Above normal temperatures last summer also boosted demand.
  • Better coal-fired plant availability is forecast to boost coal-fired generation by 16% on the year.
  • Nuclear output is expected to rise by 20% on the year with the restart of Tepco’s 1.356GW Kashiwazaki-Kariwa 7 reactor in April, the 0.825GW Onagawa 2 reactor in June and Chugoku Electric’s 0.82GW 2 reactor in August.
  • Japan’s total LNG imports are expected at 63.5mn tons this year.
  • LNG stockpiles held by Japanese utilities increased by 6.02% last week to 2.29mn tons as of 4 February, according to data released by the trade ministry. Volumes were down from 2.46mn tons in 2023 but above the five-year average of 1.91mn tons for the end of January.



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