The world’s largest market for natural gas imports is East Asia, dominated by the economies of China, Japan and South Korea, all largely bereft of indigenous resources.
The trio’s importance to energy-exporting economies, battered by the global recession that began in 2008, has never been higher, leaving the trio to choose amongst a number of suppliers, with China favoring pipelines crisscrossing Central Asia, lessening its exposure to maritime liquefied natural gas imports from such volatile regions as the Middle East, to Japan and South Korea, currently the world’s largest LNG importer, eyeing any and all options.
Australia, previously having regarded itself as East Asia’s energy back yard, is about to experience some major “blowback” on its predatory “buy cheap, sell dear” policies, with a rising competitor being – the Russian Arctic.
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