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The biggest surge in Asia’s liquefied natural gas prices since 2008 may be ending as supplies increase from Australia and Angola and Middle East cargoes are diverted from the United States and Europe.

The price for prompt and short-term LNG deliveries to Asia will either fall or stabilize next year, according to five of seven analysts, traders and importers surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Japan, the world’s biggest buyer, paid 29 percent more than a year earlier on average in the first 11 months of 2011, while costs in Korea, the second-largest consumer, jumped 26 percent, customs data shows.

The threat of recession in Europe and a doubling in US production from shale deposits are damping natural gas prices, encouraging suppliers worldwide to divert more LNG to Asia.

Qatar, the biggest producer, has said that it plans to boost Asian sales just as Angola and Australia start production from new projects.

That may be sufficient to meet growing consumption and keep a cap on costs, according to the survey.

“Spot prices will fall appreciably from here,” A.K. Balyan, managing director of Petronet LNG, India’s biggest importer, said by phone from New Delhi.

“There’s overcapacity in the LNG market, and Japan’s requirement for additional volumes probably won’t be as much as it was earlier this year.”

Global consumption of LNG, up 11 percent this year, will extend gains in 2012 as Japan’s nuclear reactors stay offline after the March 11 earthquake and China and India build more gas import terminals, Neil Beveridge, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, told clients on Dec. 13.

Japan paid an average of $718 a metric ton, or about $13.80 per million British thermal unit, for spot and short-term supplies through November, according to Bloomberg calculations based on customs data.

That compares with $10.70 per million Btu in the year-earlier period. South Korea paid $597 a ton, or $11.50, official data shows. That compares with $9.10 in 2010.

This year’s gain in Asian LNG prices is the biggest since they surged to a record of more than $25 per million Btu for some spot shipments in 2008.

That jump was driven by rising oil prices and a short-term increase in demand.

Japan’s purchases of spot and short-term LNG rose 161 percent to at least 4.7 million tons in the first 11 months of 2011, accounting for about 6.6 percent of the country’s total imports, according to government data.

South Korea’s spot and short-term imports rose by about 31 percent to 5.1 million tons, about 16 percent of total purchases, according to customs data.

While analysts forecast that demand for LNG will continue to increase, the risk Europe’s debt crisis will trigger a recession is holding down gas prices in the region.

Front-month British benchmark prices traded today at 53.7 pence a therm, down 12 percent this year.

Angola plans to begin shipping LNG in the first quarter of next year, Luanda-based Sonangol said on its Web site.

Australia is also set to switch on new LNG supplies in the next quarter. Even after the increases in Angola and Australia, global LNG supply may increase only half as much in 2012 as in 2011, according to Andy Flower, a British gas consultant.

Output may increase by about 5 percent next year to about 254 million tons, Flower, a former executive at BP’s LNG unit, said by e-mail on Dec. 23.

Cargoes delivered to import facilities may rise an estimated 9.5 percent to about 242 million tons this year, he said.

“Supply growth will certainly slow and there is already clear evidence in the data for the second half of 2011 that it is already happening,” Flower said, adding that consumption will match supply.

Bloomberg