SINGAPORE, Jan 4 (Reuters) - JERA Global Markets, a joint venture trading unit of Japanese and French partners, has hired Jonathan Westby as senior vice president for LNG.

Westby previously worked for Centrica, where he was the co-managing director of energy marketing and trading in addition to managing its global LNG business, JERA said in an e-mailed statement.

Prior to joining Centrica in 2014, Westby was BP's global head of LNG trading, JERA said.

Westby replaces Sarah Behbehani who left JERA in May.

JERAGM is a joint venture between majority shareholder JERA, the world's top buyer of LNG, and EDF Trading, a wholly owned subsidiary of French utility Electricite de France.

JERA itself is a joint venture between Japanese utilities Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power. (Reporting by Florence Tan. Editing by Mark Potter)