Qatar accounts for bulk of LNG supplies to Asia in 2022: IGU

Qatar accounts for bulk of LNG supplies to Asia in 2022: IGU

LNG trade between the Middle East and Asia was the third largest globally in 2022, with Qatar accounting for bulk of the supplies, the International Gas Union (IGU) said in its ‘2023 World LNG Report’ released on Wednesday. Middle East to Asia LNG trade accounted for 40.6mn tonnes in 2022, up 6.7mn tonnes on the year before, IGU said. Qatar accounted for bulk of the LNG exports at 36.1mn tonnes, which was 9.1mn tonnes higher than in 2021, IGU noted. In 2022, global LNG trade flows continued to be dominated by intra-Asia Pacific trade (97.9mn tonnes), mainly driven by a rise in exports from Australia to Japan (31.2mn tonnes), South Korea (11.6mn tonnes), Chinese Taipei (7.6mn tonnes) and from Malaysia to Japan (11.8mn tonnes). Most of the remaining supply from Asia Pacific went to Asia (37.8mn tonnes) as seen in previous years. Exports from Australia to China alone totalled 22.8mn tonnes in 2022. Notably, Asia Pacific shipped 0.2mn tonnes to Europe, including one cargo from Australia to the Netherlands, one cargo from Indonesia to France and one from Indonesia to Turkiye. “Despite being a long distance with high shipping costs, the cargoes helped meet Europe’s immediate needs for LNG to