Japan utilities use 23% more LNG in September

Japan's 10 utilities consumed 23 % more LNG in September from a year earlier, reflecting their need to offset a fall in nuclearpower generation to a record low by burning more gas.

The 10 utilities used 4.36 million tonnes of LNG last month, data by the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan showed on Friday. That was still lower than record monthly LNG usage of 4.81 million tonnes in August.   

While using 9 percent less coal than a year ago, the utilities used 21 percent more fuel oil and 10 percent more
crude oil last month despite the worst annual decline for the month of September in their power production.   

Japan's total nuclear power plant utilisation rate fell to a record low of 20.6 percent in September, down from 66.7 percent a year earlier.    

The full story is available at Reuters.