There has been an increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports into Japan this week in the wake of the devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit the country last week and shut down a great deal of its energy infrastructure and operations, most notably a number of nuclear power plants.

Japanese utilities are expected to increase their LNG imports by 1.5 million tons in April to make up for the loss of power generation from nuclear and thermal power plants.         

According to a report from Reuters, South Korean ...