Taiwan's Oct. LNG imports decline 5.7% as costs rise

Taiwan, Asia's third-biggest liquefied natural gas importer, trimmed purchases by 5.7 percent in October while costs rose, government data shows.

CPC Corp., Taiwan's only LNG importer, cut purchases to 1.64 million kiloliters, or about 743,000 metric tons, last month from 1.74 million kiloliters a year earlier, the island's Taipei-based energy bureau said in an e-mail Wednesday. Taiwan paid 11 percent more for each unit of the fuel.

"Until Taiwan's LNG-powered power plants come on-stream, the demand for LNG will be quite flat," Wei Juen-shen, section chief for energy statistics at the bureau of energy in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said. Wei declined to comment on the decline in LNG imports.

LNG meets more than 95 percent of Taiwan's natural gas needs. Prices of the fuel have climbed in recent months after an accident in March at a Tokyo Electric Power Co. nuclear plant increased demand for LNG to run gas-fired generators, according to consultant Facts Inc.

Taiwan's government forecasts the island's LNG demand will rise 31 percent to 10.5 million tons in 2010, and double by the end of the next decade.