Japan's LNG stockpiles down to 1.79 million T, lowest so far this year

TOKYO, July 30 (Reuters) - Liquefied natural gas (LNG) stockpiles held by major Japanese electric utilities fell to 1.79 million metric tons for the week ended on July 27, their lowest this year so far, official data showed on Wednesday.

In the previous week, the stockpile was at 1.92 million tons, below the 1.94 million tons held during July last year on average.

In the last five years for July, the utilities had averaged 2.15 million tons, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) shows.

The data did not provide an explanation for the drop in inventory although LNG stockpiles are usually down during the summer due to high temperatures and peak air conditioning usage.