Chinese liquefied natural gas imports increased in May compared with the year-ago period as new regasification facilities are planned, including in Hong Kong.
LNG shipments in May were 4.43 million tonnes, lower than in the previous month’s 4.54MT, though higher by 6.90 percent than the 4.15 MT received in May 2018.
LNG imports for the first five months of 2019 rose 20.3 percent from a year earlier to 23.87MT, according to the nation's General Administration of Customs.
China imported a total of 4.54MT of LNG in April 2019 compared with 3.39MT in April 2018, a rise of 33.9 percent.
The total of LNG imports for the January-May period was given as 23.88MT versus19.87MT in January-May 2018, an increase of about 20.3 percent.
Among the main suppliers of shipments to China in May 2019 were nations such as Qatar, Australia, Indonesia and Nigeria.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission has also 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.
That’s as Hong Kong Electric Co. and Castle Peak Power Co., two local power companies in the autonomous Chinese territory, said they had signed a supply deal for the former British colony’s first imports of LNG and for the charter of a floating storage and regasification unit.
Hong Kong is moving to use more natural gas to fuel its electric power generation instead of coal or oil.
Both Hong Kong-based power companies said they have signed an agreement with Shell Eastern Trading, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell, for a long-term LNG supply for the Hong Kong Offshore LNG terminal.
Shell will supply around 1.2 million tonnes per annum of LNG to both companies from its global LNG portfolio once the project has been completed.
Castle Peak Power and Hong Kong Electric said that their joint venture had signed an agreement with Japanese shipping line Mitsui OSK Lines to charter an FSRU.
