Weather and pricing key to Asia’s winter LNG demand

Nuclear availability in Japan and South Korea will also be an important factor in determining overall LNG requirements

Asia’s LNG demand outlook for the coming winter will depend in large part on he weather, nuclear availability and—for some of the newer markets—pricing, Kaushal Ramesh, head of gas and LNG analytics at consultancy Rystad explained as he spoke with Petroleum Economist for the Energy Oracles podcast series. The largest LNG markets in the world are concentrated in Northeast Asia. China and Japan are the two biggest, with South Korea and Taiwan also being significant importers. And while China has some domestic gas output, overall there is a lack of significant production in the region, making it “much more dependent on LNG imports, while LNG storage is fairly expensive”, said Ramesh. That means