LNG

Chinese liquefied natural gas imports declined slightly last month with most cargoes coming from Australia and Qatar while pipeline gas imports edged higher with energy demand improving for the needs of power and industry.

Deliveries of cargoes to China’s regasification terminals in September amounted to 5.69 million tonnes, or 84 cargoes, a drop of 2.8 percent on the 5.90MT, or 87 cargoes, received in September 2022, according to data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

Deliveries to China in August 2023 came to 6.32MT, an increase of almost 34 percent compared with 4.72MT in August 2022.

While supplies to China were weak for many months in 2022 because of Covid-19 lockdowns in the main cities, they began to rebound in September 2022 ahead of the winter heating season.

Network

China’s main LNG suppliers to its network of 25 import terminals are Australia, Qatar, Malaysia, Indonesia, the US and the Yamal plant in Arctic Russia.

The US no longer has China as a preferred destination for now with European countries taking more cargoes in 2023 since the ending of Nord Stream pipeline deliveries to Germany and the European Union amid Western sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.

Most recently the Netherlands became the latest European country to overtake China in the overall list of recipients of US LNG.

China has now dropped to seventh place from third place last year and has been overtaken by the UK, Spain and France for uS cargoes as well as the Netherlands.

However, more winter volumes should point at China in the months ahead as the Japan-Korea Marker price for spot cargoes hit $17.305 per million British thermal units and was seen rising further in a tight market.

The September Chinese energy data also showed that pipeline natural gas imports by China increased slightly to 4.25MT from 4.21MT in September 2022.

The “Power of Siberia” pipeline from Russia is the main supplier. It runs  for 3,000km (1,865 miles) through Siberia and into northeast China and a “Power of Siberia II” pipeline is being planned to deliver gas to China via Mongolia.

Additional pipelines inside China carry the gas for a further 2,110km through eight Chinese provinces in the north to Shanghai in eastern China.

Gas supply from the “Power of Siberia” pipeline reached just over 5 billion cubic metres in 2020, then 10.4 Bcm in 2021 and rose to 15 Bcm in 2022.

The volumes of Russian pipeline gas deliveries to China in 2023 are expected to reach around 22 Bcm or more.

Empyrean Energy, the UK-listed oil and gas company with main interests in Indonesia and China, reported a successful share placement and debt restructuring and provided an update on supplying pipeline natural gas to Singapore in competition to LNG and made advances with its Topaz project offshore China.

Sonatrach, the Algerian national energy company and LNG producer, said it signed an agreement worth US$490 million with Chinese major Sinopec in the form of a production sharing contract for the Zarzaitine block in the Illizi basin of eastern Algeria.

Some of the steam has run out of the global LNG price surge as natural gas benchmarks dropped by 12 percent and more across the board for Europe and North Asia while remaining at sky-high seasonal levels as LNG cargo liftings were stable.

China likely imported a record 61 million tonnes of LNG during 2019, a 13.5 percent increase on the previous year and consolidating its position as the No. 2 importer after Japan and ahead of South Korea.

Chinese liquefied natural gas imports dropped by around 12 percent in October compared with the same month a year ago because of factory holiday closures and a terminal outage, though were still ahead of last year’s total for the first 10 months of 2019.

Chinese liquefied natural gas imports increased last month compared with the same month last year, led by shipments from Australia and Qatar, though the cargo deliveries were lower than the record set in January 2019 when winter demand was at its peak.

March 8 (LNGJ) - Chinese natural gas imports rose in February compared with a year ago, though they were lower versus the January 2019 imports, according to the General Administration of Customs. Total natural gas imports, including both liquefied natural gas and pipeline gas, amounted to 7.57 million tonnes in February, down from 9.81MT in January, though up 9.2 percent from a year earlier. LNG and pipeline natural imports for the first two months of 2019 reached 17.36MT, up 18.5 percent from a year ago.

Chinese liquefied natural gas imports rose to a record level last month as shipments continued to be attracted by high North Asian spot prices with the main suppliers such as Qatar, Australia and Nigeria keeping up their delivery momentum.

Jan 30 (LNGJ) - The 147,000 cubic metres capacity vessel “Min Rong” will deliver a cargo on January 31 to the Chinese Fujian terminal from the Tangguh export plant in Indonesia, operated by BP of the UK, according to shipping data. The 174,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Gaslog Houston” will unload a shipment on February 2 at the Tangshan terminal in northeast China from the Gorgon plant on Barrow Island in Western Australia. The 172,000 cubic metres capacity “Kumul” will deliver a cargo on February 3 to the Chinese Qingdao terminal in eastern Shandong province from the plant in Papua New Guinea.

   The 174,100 cubic metres capacity vessel “Cesi Behai” is scheduled to deliver a cargo on Feb 6 to the Chinese Tianjin terminal for Sinopec from the Australia Pacific plant in Queensland. The 155,000 cubic metres capacity “Gaslog Savannnah” is delivering on February 8 to the Qingdao terminal, operated by Sinopec, from the Australia-Pacific plant in Queensland. The 210,185 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex vessel “Al Bahaiya” will unload a cargo on February 10 at the port of Tianjin from Qatargas at Ras Laffan.

   In other Asian deliveries, the 155,000 cubic metres capacity “LNG Venus” will deliver a cargo on February 7 to Singapore from Gladstone LNG in Queensland. The 216,000 cubic metres capacity vessel “Al Thumama” will unload a cargo on February 5 at the Map Ta Phut terminal in Thailand from the Qatargas plant at Ras Laffan.