Weak China Demand Pushes Australian Gas Exporters to Seek New Buyers

Asia’s weak LNG demand has prompted one of the biggest exporters, Australia, to ship a cargo of the fuel as far as East Canada on a 16,000-mile journey, vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

LNG carrier the Maran Gas Hector is set to arrive in East Canada on Thursday, having left Australia more than a month ago and having traveled via the southern tip of South America and along the South and North American Atlantic coasts.

This is the first LNG shipment from Australia to East Canada, Bloomberg notes, citing ship-tracking data by Kpler dating back to 2008.

Australia has also recently sent an LNG cargo to Turkey—the first since at least 2017, per data compiled by Bloomberg.

Australia, the world’s third largest LNG exporter after the United States and Qatar, is looking to sell the fuel on the spot market to buyers outside its traditional customers in north Asia as LNG demand in Asia is currently lagging expectations.

Softer demand, including in China, has made more spot cargoes from Australia available for buyers outside the key Asian market.

China is even re-selling cargoes with flexible destination clauses.

Spot LNG prices in Asia have tumbled since the beginning of the year as current loadings are for deliveries in April, when winter demand in Asia would have ended while summer demand has yet to pick up.

While Asian demand is waning, Europe is gorging on LNG, on track to set another record-high LNG import volume for February.

The record-breaking LNG arrivals to Europe were helped by weaker Chinese demand that pressured LNG prices on the spot market, making the fuel more affordable. Per Kpler data, China’s LNG imports this month will come in at 3.38 million tons. This would be the lowest since April 2018 and a palpable decline from February 2025, when imports of LNG clocked in at 4.47 million tons.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com