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Things are not looking so good in the liquefied natural gas sector. LNG prices--both in the spot market and in contracts linked to oil prices—are very low, LNG demand growth is weak or non-existent, and a flood of new liquefaction capacity is coming online. But as we’re starting to see with crude oil, markets thrown out of whack respond; they try to self-heal. Low LNG prices are spurring demand growth in Europe and attracting some new buyers—Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan among them. The pace of liquefaction-capacity expansions is slowing. And Asia may finally get an LNG hub, which would only improve LNG’s long-term prospects there. Today, we continue our look at the fast-changing international market for LNG with an assessment of demand and destinations.

The total shutdown of Japan’s nuclear power industry in the wake of the March 2011 Fukushima disaster caused a more than 20% increase in liquefied natural gas imports. In 2015, the first two of the 48 Japanese nuclear units that were taken offline post-Fukushima are expected to be restarted, but it will take several years for most of the rest to come back online—and it’s likely that many nuclear units will never return to service. How much did Fukushima change Japan’s electricity sector, and how will that nation’s fledgling nuclear reboot affect LNG imports, not just from current suppliers like Australia, Qatar and Malaysia but new and prospective suppliers in the US and Canada? Today we begin a look at the electric industry in Japan, the future of nuclear power and LNG use there, and the Japanese-led effort to change how LNG is priced.