After building more than enough stockpiles in September and October that will last its country's energy requirements through the winter, imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by South Korea, the world's second-largest buyer of the commodity, had fallen 34.5 per cent in November compared to a year ago.

South Korea's imports of the chilled LNG slid to 2.32 million tonnes in November from 3.54 million tonnes a year earlier, data from the Korea Customs Service showed.

"November was warmer than usual, leading to less gas consumption," a Korean government source whose name was withheld told Reuters News.

The source did not elaborate on winter inventory targets, but said South Korea's LNG inventories at present were at 90 per cent of the country's storage capacity of 3.8 million tonnes. In November, it was over 95 per cent capacity.

The warm weather likewise slowed down sales of LNG in South Korea.

State-run Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) on Monday said domestic sales of LNG in November reached only 2.708 million tonnes, equivalent to some 119.93 billion cubic feet of natural gas, an 8.9 per cent decline from a year ago.

State-run utilities in South Korea have been actively elevating fuel inventories with huge gas imports between August and September this year to guarantee a steady and reliable power supply during winter.

South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy, mainly imports natural gas from Indonesia, Qatar, Malaysia, Russia and Oman, which it stores in LNG form.