Imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) fell for a fifth straight month last month after electricity demand dropped.
Taiwan is the third-biggest importer of the fuel in East Asia.
Imports fell about 37 percent to 1.09 million kiloliters, or 495,000 tonnes, compared with 783,000 tonnes a year earlier, data from the Bureau of Energy showed on Wednesday.
Taiwan paid US$264.7 million, or US$534.7 a tonne, last month, a reduction of 17 percent on a unit-cost basis from the US$641.14 a tonne in the year-earlier period, the data indicated.
That’s equivalent to about US$10.2 per million British thermal units (BTU).
Electricity sales at Taiwan Power Co (台電), the nation’s monopoly grid operator, fell 15 percent last month from a year earlier, a company newsletter said.
Generators account for about 80 percent of LNG consumption and state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) is the nation’s only importer of the fuel.
Taiwan bought 422,100 kiloliters of spot LNG from Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea last month and 130,400 kiloliters from Australia, in addition to multiyear purchases from Malaysia and Indonesia, the energy bureau said.
That compares with 536,500 kiloliters purchased a year earlier.
Malaysia and Indonesia remained Taiwan’s two largest suppliers.
Taiwan bought LNG from Australia last month for the first time since November 2007, and also from Equatorial Guinea for the first time since last November.
The country paid on average US$12.60 per million BTUs for the spot purchases last month, the report said.
LNG is natural gas that has been chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume for transportation by ship to destinations not connected by pipeline.
On arrival, it is turned back into gas for distribution to power plants, factories and households.
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