Trafigura, one of the world’s largest commodities trading firms, said its LNG volumes rose 22 percent in the 2018 financial year, driven by a surge in demand in Asia.

The Geneva-based independent company traded 9.85 million tonnes in the financial year that ended September 30, as compared to 8.1 million tonnes a year ago, according to Trafigura’s annual report.

This figure was boosted by sales to China and South Korea, with the Asian share of Trafigura’s LNG business jumping to 30 percent, it said.

“The LNG book is now satisfactorily diversified by geography, with an important customer base in Europe, Middle East and the Americas as well as Asia, and is supported by our ample access to infrastructure such as storage tanks and timechartered LNG vessels,” Trafigura noted in the report.

“This enabled us to take full advantage of the global arbitrage opportunities by rapidly switching LNG cargoes from Europe, say, to Asia in response to market signals,” it said.

Looking forward, Trafigura expects LNG demand to continue its upward trajectory over the next year to accommodate the new production from US, Australia and Russia coming online.

Trafigura added it is “well positioned” to supply the market, not least by virtue of a series of multi-year offtake agreements signed with LNG producers in 2018.

“In particular, the first cargo under our 15-year purchase agreement with Cheniere Energy is due to ship in January, marking the start of a contract amounting to one million metric tonnes per annum,” the trader said.

LNG World news Staff