In the present, there is no where else for them to go.
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..."Tokyo is interested in buying gas at the lowest possible price. At present it buys LNG at $550 per 1,000 cu.m., whereas the price for European consumers stands at $365.
Japan saw a hike in LNG demand following the Fukushima-1 disaster in March 2011, but the importers have recently started demanding a discount, including from Gazprom.
The Russian gas giant is not prepared to discuss a lowering of prices at the moment, according to a Gazprom source.
The Japanese partners have been asking to consider the possibility of underwater pipeline deliveries but Gazprom is sceptical about the feasibility of such a project.
Once Tokyo has accumulated a collection of proposals from state- and private-run exporters in Russia and elsewhere, it will be able to request discounts, says Valery Nesterov with Sberbank Investment Research. Japan, South Korea and China are in the middle of revising the established gas pricing formulae ahead of the expected massive supplies of cheap LNG to Asia.
The gas price is historically linked to the price of oil, but US companies trading in shale gas base their pricing on spot values. It is possible that more expensive gas will have difficulty getting to the Asian markets.
One thing is clear: an abundance of potential suppliers provides customers with a greater choice."