Russia’s LNG Rush Gives Japan Strongest Bargaining Chip
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Japan, the world’s top importer of liquefied natural gas, has its best opportunity to bargain for lower prices since it started buying the power-plant fuel 44 years ago. One reason is Russia.
OAO Gazprom, OAO Rosneft and OAO Novatek plan to build more than 50 million metric tons of LNG capacity in the next decade. That’s 58 percent of the record 86.9 million tons Japan bought last fiscal year after the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima idled all but two of its atomic reactors.