Japan’s biggest liquefied natural gas buyer, JERA, has started talks for potential additional purchases with global suppliers to hedge against Middle East supply worsening further, even as a major LNG exporter said the price spike was short-lived.

Some 20 per cent of global LNG supply is offline as the US-Israeli war on Iran has shut QatarEnergy LNG facilities, disrupting energy supplies from the Middle East. It could take months to return to normal deliveries, Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said last week.

JERA handles about 35 million metric tons of the super-chilled fuel annually, of which around 27 million tons are used domestically, with about 5% of its shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz, said Global CEO Yukio Kani.