INDONESIA is no longer the king of gas in Japan. Its position as the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has recently continued to decline. Last year, Indonesia only supplied one-third of the LNG needs of the Land of the Samurai. This is in spite of the fact that for the 20 years previously, Indonesia had controlled more than half of Japan's gas supplies.

Japanese gas-importing companies have started looking at other gas-producin