South Korea's LNG imports hit record high in 2018

Source: Sinochem New Network January 29, 2019

According to Yonhap News, a data released by the Korea Trade Association on the 28th shows that South Korea's imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2018 increased by 17.3% year-on-year to 44.04 million tons, a record high.

From the perspective of importing countries, Qatar is the largest gas source country in South Korea, accounting for 32.4% of the total imports, followed by Australia (17.9%), the United States (10.6%), Oman (9.7%), Malaysia (8.4%), Indonesia (7.8%) and Russia (4.4%).

It is worth noting that last year, LNG from the United States surged by 138% year-on-year, reaching 4.66 million tons, and South Korea also became the largest LNG export target country of the United States. In this regard, experts commented that South Korea is getting rid of the import pattern dominated by the Middle East and Southeast Asia and gradually diversifying its imported gas sources. (Finish)