Low prices not luring Asian buyers back to LNG

Preferable nuclear and coal options suggest balanced Asian LNG market, at least over the summer

A sharp fall in Asia-Pacific LNG prices over the first quarter of 2023, to their lowest in nearly two years amid muted demand, has tempted some marginal buyers off the sidelines—but the lower prices will not be enough to spur major coal-to-gas switching in the region’s top purchasers of the fuel. The reversal in Asian spot LNG prices since the start of this year has been dramatic following last year’s record highs, when they traded at unprecedented premiums to oil-linked pricing and prompted China, Japan and South Korea to burn more coal for power generation to fill in electricity demand as gas imports decreased. Fast forward to this spring, and Asian inventories are now tracking levels that