Chinese liquefied natural gas imports increased last month by almost 34 percent compared with the same month of 2018 amid a slump in spot cargo prices and overall demand.
China imported a total of 4.54 million tonnes of LNG in April 2019 compared with 3.39MT in April 2018, a rise of 33.9 percent over the same month a year ago, according to the nation's General Administration of Customs.
The total of LNG imports for the January-April period was given as 19.45MT, an increase of 40.3 percent for the fourth-month period year-on-year.
The shipments were encouraged by lower LNG cargo prices for North Asia of under $6.00 per million British thermal units for April 2019.
Chinese LNG imports had risen 25 percent in March compared with the same month a year ago as the nation has also begun to improve its natural gas storage facilities to help meet peak demand.
The March LNG imports were 4.06MT versus 3.25MT in March 2018. Prices in March 2019 had been above $6.00 per MMBtu before dropping at the end of the month.
Among the main suppliers of shipments to China in April 2019 were nations such as Qatar, Australia, Indonesia and Nigeria.
Among the high volume of Australian cargoes, the 74,100 cubic metres capacity carrier “Cesi Gladstone” unloaded a shipment on April 13 at the Chinese Tianjin onshore terminal, operated by Sinopec, from the Australia-Pacific export plant in Queensland.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission has been working to encourage companies to expand the gas pipeline network, improve gas storage and is now seeing results in enabling the system to meet peak demand when required.
China generally uses depleted or abandoned gas fields and reservoirs to build underground storage as they are more effective and economical compared with spherical tanks above ground.
The state-owned major, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., also known as Sinopec, has now started sending natural gas imported at its Tianjin LNG terminal east of Beijing, to the newly-built Wen 23 underground gas storage facility at Puyang in northern Henan province.
The Wen gas storage was part of the China's 13th Five-Year Plan to benefit Hebei and Henan provinces and was rebuilt from an exhausted gas field and put into operation in mid-March 2019.
Sinopec said that the storage is connected to its own Ordos-Anping-Cangzhou gas pipeline, which is 700 kilometres long and includes one trunk line and two branch lines linking eight cities and 23 counties. The pipeline has been in commercial operation since November 2018.
The underground storage gives Sinopec's gas supply optionality and flexibility during peak demand in northeast China.
