India will work with Japan to make long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deals more affordable for its price-sensitive consumers, it said on Wednesday, as these two big importers try to secure better prices and concessions from suppliers.

IMF - When we think about Asia’s economic future, we know that this future is being built on strong foundations—on the richness and diversity of its cultures, on the incredible energy and ingenuity of the people who have changed the world by transforming their own economies. China and India have been driving the greatest poverty reduction in human history by creating the world’s largest middle classes. In a single generation, Vietnam has moved from being one of the world’s poorest nations to being a middle-income country.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco will on Wednesday add 1.9 million barrels (300,000 kilolitres) of crude to storage that it holds in Japan, a Japanese trade ministry official said.

Qatar faces rising competition from a tide of new LNG from sources including Australia, which is expected to surpass it as the world's top exporter by 2019.

China claims almost all of a large stretch of sea between Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam and Japan. The trouble is, between them, these seven other states all do too.

Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS), Japan's JERA and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) [SASACY.UL] - whose joint liquefied natural gas volumes account for a third of global LNG trade - are attempting to cement a shift in power from producers to importers amid a supply glut that is expected to persist into the early-2020s.

Trade between the countries fell overall last year as oil prices dropped. Japan's 2.1 trillion yen ($18.6 billion) in imports from Saudi Arabia in 2016, mostly oil and gas, dwarfed its exports of 546.3 billion yen ($4.8 billion).

The average price of spot LNG imports to Japan contracted in January 2017 was $8.40/mn Btu, up from $8/mn Btu in December 2016, the ministry of economy, trade and industry (Meti) said February 9, their highest level for two years. But Japan's IEEJ says that prices have now peaked.

Saudi Arabia's crude oil supplies to Japan rose to a 10-year high in 2016, underlining the kingdom's strong will to defend its share in the ever competitive Asian markets.

Japan is putting together a package of plans for Japanese companies to invest in infrastructure and job-creation projects in the United States. Japan is the world's biggest buyer of the gas cooled to liquid form for transport on ships and takes in nearly a third of global shipments.