South Korea Cuts Retail Gas Prices by 5.6%

South Korea has announced it will cut retail gas prices beginning next month.

Energy ministry on Friday said it will slash retail prices for both household and industrial users by 5.6 percent on average. The new tariff structure will come into effect May 1.  

The latest reduction would the third cut this year as global LNG prices continue to rule low. In January prices were reduced by 9 percent while in March the cut was of 9.5 percent. South Korea is one of the biggest LNG importer in Asia along with Japan.

However, despite a trend of declining gas prices, demand remain slack. Kogas’ LNG sales dropped 4.4 percent year on year to 3.14 million tons in March. In 2015, Kogas gas sales declined 10.6 percent.