Business · Energy & Commodities · 3 hrs ago
South Korea's LNG imports shift as Middle East supplies fall
During January-September 2026, South Korea's LNG supply sources shifted as a prolonged Middle East war disrupted deliveries.
The country imported 6.4% less LNG overall than in the same period a year earlier, while Middle East imports fell 66.2%.
In contrast, North American imports more than doubled, with Canadian supplies rising especially sharply.
The government says it has secured replacement supplies from the United States and Southeast Asia, but winter demand and uncertainty about global supply could add to price pressure.
The disruption has given Alaska's proposed LNG project new strategic importance for South Korea as a possible source of supply across the Pacific.
But the project faces questions about commercial viability, including high estimated costs and possible delays.
South Korea has not decided whether to invest and continues talks with the United States about ways to make the project commercially viable.
South Korea’s liquefied natural gas imports from the Middle East fell 66.2% in January-September, while imports from North America more than doubled.
Total LNG imports fell 6.4% year on year to 32.87 million tonnes.
The shift comes as a prolonged Middle East war disrupts supplies and uncertainty grows over when global supply will normalize.
South Korea has secured replacement supplies from the United States and Southeast Asia and plans to continue diversifying imports.
The government has highlighted the strategic value of a proposed Alaska LNG project, but has not decided whether to invest and says commercial viability remains important.
- Who
- South Korea and its government, which is managing changes in LNG supplies.
- What
- South Korea’s LNG imports from the Middle East fell, while imports from North America increased sharply.
- When
- January-September 2026.
- Where
- South Korea; the reported supply changes concern imports from the Middle East and North America.
- Why
- The prolonged Middle East war has disrupted supplies and changed South Korea’s import mix.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
South Korea imported 32.87 million tonnes of LNG, down 6.4% from the same period a year earlier.
The JKM and TTF gas price benchmarks rose 15.2% and 17.1%, respectively, from the previous month.
Industry Minister Kim Jeong-gwan told a parliamentary audit that the Middle East war had given the Alaska LNG project new strategic value.
Yonhap reported the decline in Middle Eastern LNG imports and the increase in North American imports.
- Total LNG imports
- 32.87 million tonnes in January-September 2026, down 6.4% year on year
- Middle East imports
- 2.42 million tonnes, down 66.2%
- North America imports
- 7.82 million tonnes, up 102.9%
- United States imports
- 4.85 million tonnes, up 41.7%
- Canada imports
- 2.97 million tonnes, up 587.6%
1 source
What people are saying
There is clearly a new strategic value that has emerged through the Middle East war.
From the perspective that LNG can be supplied to Korea from Alaska across the Pacific, it can be seen as having strategic value, but economic value is a different matter.