LNG

China's natural gas imports as LNG cargoes and pipeline increased by more than 14 percent in the first half of 2024 compared with the same period last year, though slowed right down during the month of June.

LNG and pipeline gas imported volumes totalled 64.65 million tonnes in the January-to-June period, which was a 14.3 percent year-over-year rise from the 56.63MT logged in the same period of 2023.

Total natural gas imports for the month of June increased by only 0.3 percent to 10.42MT tonnes compared 10.39MT in June 2023.

The natural gas market in the Northern Hemisphere summer season has been marked by lower prices and higher storage levels.

Main suppliers

China’s main LNG suppliers in 2024 have been Australia, Qatar, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Yamal plant in Arctic Russia and to a lesser extent the US.

US data shows that China has dropped to the ninth preferred destination for US LNG deliveries as the focus has turned to Europe.

China's natural gas imports by pipelines as well as LNG had increased for May and during the first five months of 2024 along with domestic natural gas production.

A total of 54.28MT of natural gas was imported in the first five months of 2024, up 17.4 percent versus the previous year.

Imports of LNG to the Chinese network of 25 regasification terminals had increased in 2023 and the nation regained the No. 1 spot as the largest LNG importer ahead of Japan.

Japan’s 2023 calendar year LNG imports dropped by 8.1 percent in 2023 to 66.15MT compared with China’s overall imports of 71.35MT.

Russian pipelines

China receives varying volumes of pipeline gas through links from the former Soviet Central Asian republics as well as from Russia as part of Gazprom's “Power of Siberia” project.

The “Power of Siberia” pipeline 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.

China’s combined natural gas imports for January and February 2021 rose 17.5 percent to 20.80 million tonnes compared with the previous year as colder weather increased demand for winter heating and industrial activity was higher than last year when Covid-19 was spreading.

Natural gas imports over the January-February period in 2019 had amounted to 17.36MT for LNG and pipelines, according to China's General Administration of Customs.

China’s main LNG suppliers are Australia, Qatar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia and the US.

The Chinese also receive pipeline gas from southeast Asian nation Myanmar and from the Central Asian republics of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as from Russia since December 2019 as part of Russian company Gazprom's Power of Siberia project.

The separate data for LNG is expected to be released soon in the belated statistical gathering process caused by the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays in February 2021.

Chinese industrial activity usually slows during the New Year break, which fell in the middle of February this year.

The January-February period of 2020 was when Covid-19 was spreading in China.

The Chinese data showed that in January-February 2021, overall imports of all products increased 22.2 percent from a year earlier.

China also posted a trade surplus of $103.25 billion for the first two months of 2021.

Analysts had expected the trade surplus to narrow to $60.15Bln from $78.17Bln in December.

China had confirmed in January 2021 that 2020 LNG imports hit an annual record.

Chinese imports totalled 67.13MT of LNG in 2020, an increase of 11.5 percent.

Shipments during December to China’s network of 22 LNG terminals also hit a record monthly high of 7.59MT, up 18.2 percent from the December 2019.

Imports by China have been increasing even at higher North Asia spot LNG cargo prices.

The Japan-Korea Marker price for North Asia had fallen to its lowest ever of $1.83 per million British thermal units on the 29th of April 2020 before jumping more than eight-fold in the closing stages of December to a more than six-year high of $15.10 per MMBtu.

The JKM prices then rose substantially in January and February 2021 to reach a reported high of up to $38.00 per MMBtu.

Chinese imports had grown at a fast pace to 61.68MT in 2019, a 13.5 percent increase on 2018 when 53.81MT was received and from 2017 when 39MT was imported.

China may be trailing Japan in LNG imports but it remained the world’s largest natural gas importer by far when pipeline volumes are counted, well ahead of the world No. 2 gas importer Germany and No. 3 Japan as LNG suppliers also intensified their battle for Chinese LNG market share.