August LNG imports slowest in 2008

The island bought 1.9 million kiloliters, or 872,000 metric tons, of the cleaner burning fuel, up 1.8 percent compared with August 2007, data from the Bureau of Energy showed today. The LNG import bill last month reached US$761 million, or US$873 a ton. That’s equivalent to almost US$17 per million British thermal units.

The increase in LNG imports slowed from 10 percent in July as electricity demand declined. The island imports more than 95 percent of its gas needs, with generators accounting for about 75 percent of LNG consumption.

“The growth in LNG imports slowed sharply, with electricity demand being the major factor,” Wei Juen-shen, a planning official at the energy bureau, said by telephone yesterday.

Taiwan Power Co., the island’s monopoly grid operator, posted a 6.1 percent decline in sales to 17 billion kilowatt- hours last month compared with a year earlier as economic growth slowed and electricity rates increased.

Taiwan bought a total of 527,300 kiloliters of spot LNG cargos from Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea in August, the energy bureau said in an e-mailed statement. The island also imported LNG from Malaysia, Indonesia and Qatar under multi-year contracts.

CPC Corp., the state-owned oil refiner, is the island’s only importer of LNG.

Taipower increased electricity prices by 12.6 percent in July, in line with President Ma Ying-jeou’s policy to let tariffs better reflect costs.

Electricity sales declined after Taiwan’s economy grew at the slowest pace in more than a year in the second quarter as consumer spending cooled and U.S. purchases of the island’s laptops, flat-screen televisions and mobile phones fell.

The government in August cut the island’s 2008 economic growth forecast to 4.3 percent from 4.78 percent. The central bank unexpectedly reduced interest rates last week for the first time since 2003, saying the global financial crisis has heightened the risk of a slowdown.

LNG is natural gas that has been chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume at minus 161 degrees Celsius (minus 259 Fahrenheit), for transportation by ship to destinations not connected by pipeline. On arrival, it’s turned back into gas for distribution to power plants, factories and households.

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