Asia LNG imports drop most since 2022 as Iran war upends supply

Published Wed, Apr 1, 2026 · 03:09 PM

[BEIJING] Asian liquefied natural gas imports fell the most in more than three years last month as the conflict in the Middle East choked supply and sent prices higher.

LNG deliveries to the region declined 8.6 per cent in March from a year earlier to about 20.6 million tons, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That is the biggest drop since December 2022.

World LNG supply has been badly hampered by the war in Iran, with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz cutting the world off from about a fifth of the total and Qatar shutting the world’s biggest plant following attacks by the Islamic Republic. Prices in Asia may jump 50 per cent on the damage as competition for spot cargoes intensifies, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Imports to China and India fell the most in March from a year ago, with both nations seeing shipments decline by about a fifth in the period. Pakistan, which got almost all of its LNG from Qatar in 2025, saw deliveries slide by almost 70 per cent from a year earlier. 

The region has been scrambling to seek alternative sources of energy because of the cut in LNG supply from the Middle East, which was further compounded by outages at Australian facilities following a cyclone last month. Countries including Bangladesh, India and Japan have flocked back to coal, while in Vietnam, Vingroup JSC asked the government to allow it to replace an LNG project with renewable energy.

Asian buyers were able to pull some shipments away from Europe, which needs more LNG to help refill storage sites after the loss of Russian pipeline gas supply. Western Europe’s LNG imports rose about 3.5 per cent last month from a year earlier, compared with a 17 per cent advance in February, ship-data shows. BLOOMBERG