LNG

Chinese liquefied natural gas imports in March 2023 rose by almost 16 percent as demand showed its most significant monthly increase in 14 months.

European natural gas prices and LNG values were mixed as the winter season ended and there was a mixed bag of prices for the Northern Hemisphere summer while European Union gas storage was building already apart from in France while the front-month Asian spot price declined even amid more China optimism.

Japan, which formally took back the World No. 1 LNG importer spot from China in 2022, reported a small rise in LNG shipments in January though at a much higher cost than in the prior-year period.

Imports for January amounted to 6.82 million tonnes, or about 100 cargoes, and an increase of 0.5 percent from the 6.78MT received in January 2022, according to Japan's Finance Ministry.

The imports cost 873.8 billion yen ($6.54Bln), which was 57 percent more than the 556.6Bln ($4.16Bln) cost of shipments in January 2022.

While China’s LNG imports dropped by 18.8 percent to 64.15MT, the official Japanese LNG import volumes for 2022 came to 71.99MT compared with 74.31MT in 2021, showing a fall of 3.1 percent but still enough to essily maintain the lead over China.

China had overtaken Japan in 2021 to become the world’s largest LNG importer with 78.93MT of imports, though then slipped back because of the economic slowdown and Covid-19 restrictions affecting energy demand.

Japan’s annual LNG costs jumped by 97.5 percent to 8.55 trillion yen ($64.34Bln) in 2022.

Monthly LNG imports for December 2022 to Japan’s network of 37 terminals had fallen by 13.8 percent to 6.06MT from 7.03MT in the same month of 2021.

Coal imports

Japan continued to use an increased proportion of thermal coal for electricity generation and the January coal imports rose by 1.3 percent from January 2022 to 10.68MT.

LNG cargo deliveries from Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia increased in January by 17.8 percent to 1.88MT.

Middle East cargo imports rose by 24.1 percent to 787,000 tonnes during the month.

LNG imports from the US tumbled by 73.9 percent year-on-year to 90,000 tonnes as cargoes from American export plants were pointed at Europe.

Imports from Russia declined on the month by 9.7 percent to 704,000 tonnes and cost 78.6Bln yen ($589M) for what amounted to 11 cargoes.

The cost to Japan of Russian deliveries for all of 2022 was 82.4 percent higher than in the previous year with the bill from the Russians coming to 677.5Bln yen ($5.24Bln).

Japan continues its deliveries of LNG from the Russian Far East plant at Sakhalin Island even after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 as energy security outweighed the Western-led imposition of sanctions against Russia on the energy and financial fronts.

The balance of Japan's LNG imports in January amounted to 3.86MT in the form of deliveries from the country’s largest supplier Australia, some spot cargoes and small volumes from Africa.

In its energy mix in 2022, Japan has continued to delay more nuclear power re-starts meaning that volumes of LNG and coal purchases remain high.

Since the Fukushima disaster, only 10 reactors have been given the go-ahead to go back into operation compared with the 54 that were online in 2011 and which supplied around 30 percent of Japan’s energy needs.

A further 21 reactors have been decommissioned since 2011 and will never be re-started.

Deliveries of liquefied natural gas cargoes increased to Europe this week while the differential between the benchmark European Union LNG price and spot cargoes for Asia narrowed because of seasonally milder weather and high storage across the EU.

Chinese liquefied natural gas imports in August 2022 to its network of 22 regasification terminals tumbled by 29 percent because of a mixed economic recovery, high spot prices and more pipeline natural gas imports.

Chinese liquefied natural gas imports in July 2022 to its network of 22 regasification terminals declined significantly on a year-on-year basis amid an economic slowdown while shipments from Russia have edged higher since the Ukraine invasion.

Imports of liquefied natural gas by China dropped by over 28 percent in June 2022 compared with the same month of 2021 as the economy slowed and spot LNG cargo prices stayed at record high levels on the global market

Chinese liquefied natural gas imports in June jumped 27.8 percent to 5.79 million tonnes, or around 84 cargoes, compared with 4.53MT in June 2019 as cargo flows built up from nations such as Australia, Qatar and Russia.

The Australia-Pacific LNG plant in Queensland, owned by ConocoPhillips, Australian utility Origin Energy and Chinese major Sinopec, has shipped its 500th cargo, with the destination being China.

China has imported another record total of LNG in 2018 as more winter natural gas supplies were brought to the northern cities such as Beijing to help reduce coal use and improve air quaity, aided by warmer seasonal temperatures that cut heating needs.

Among the final shipments of 2018, carriers were unloading their cargoes on December 31 from nations such as Australia, Indonesia and Nigeria.

Chinese imports had surged in the January-November period by 43.6 percent to 47.52MT and have also reached record levels in December 2018.

According to shipping data and estimates, LNG imports to China through December 22, had risen to more than 6.5MT and were expected to break the 7.5MT mark by year-end.

That would put China’s total of LNG imports in 2018 at around 56MT versus just over 39MT in 2017, second only to Japan’s 83.52MT.

China had imported 5.9MT in November 2018, surpassing the previous monthly record of 5.18MT set in January 2018, according to data from the country's General Administration of Customs.

The imports of LNG had risen by around 46 percent in 2017 from the previous year when shipments had amounted to just over 27MT.

LNG carriers from Australia, the Middle East and Africa are still heading in significant numbers for Chinese import terminals with January shipments to be regasified at its network of 20 import facilities.

In addition to its 19 onshore terminals, China has also deployed the floating storage and regasification unit, the 170,000 cubic metres capacity “Hoegh Esperanza”, at Tianjin port in northeast China to serve Beijing.

Analysts said the Chinese government had largely succeeded in its pledge to ensure abundant natural gas supplies and stable prices this winter as previous large-scale coal use was being replaced as far as possible by natural gas to improve air quality.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission had also unveiled measures to work on expanding the gas pipeline network, improve gas storage and make arrangements to meet peak demand.

The 155,000 cubic metres capacity LNG carrier “GasLog Santiago” was delivering one of the final shipments of 2018 from Australia.

The vessel was unloading its cargo on December 31 at the Ningbo terminal, owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp. in eastern Zheijang province, from the Queensland Curtis plant near Gladstone.

The 152,500 cubic metres capacity vessel “Seri Bakti”, owned by Malaysian shipping line MISC, was unloading an Indonesian cargo on December 31 at the port of Tianjin, east of Beijing.

Among African cargoes, the 141,000 cubic metres capacity “LNG Akwa Ibom” was delivering an Nigerian shipment on December 31 to the Mengtougou terminal operated by Shanghai Gas.