LNG News Editor:
Chinese LNG imports dropped by almost 18 percent in March to their lowest level in two years as Covid-19 shutdowns in cities such as Shanghai curbed economic and industrial activity as well as fuel demand and led to Japan overtaking China as the largest North Asian importer last month.
Shipments to China’s network of 22 terminal amounted to 4.63 million tonnes, or around 68 cargoes, a drop of 17.9 percent compared with the 5.64MT, or 82 cargoes, received in March 2021, according to data from China’s General Administration of Customs.
Japan higher
Japan’s LNG imports in March 2022 were 6.50MT, or 96 delivered cargoes, compared with 7.12MT in March 2021, according to the preliminary trade figures from Japan’s Ministry of Finance.
Shipments to Chinese terminals in 2021 had amounted to 78.93MT which was 18.3 percent more than in 2020.
This enabled China to be the No. 1 Asian importer as Japanese cargo numbers in 2021 dropped to 74.31MT, down 0.2 percent on 2020, and 4.62MT less that the Chinese total for last year.
The low March LNG import figure was because Chinese energy majors such as PetroChina had deliveries redirected because of the Covid-19-induced drop in demand.
The Chinese also receive varying volumes of pipeline gas through pipeline links from the former Soviet 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.
China has increased its pipeline natural gas imports on the “Power of Siberia” pipeline from Russia to 43 million cubic metres per day, or around 15 billion cubic metres per annum.
The volumes are likely to increase as the Russians focus on China as a customer to replace the nations of the European Union who are determined to cut gas imports from the Russians over the invasion of Ukraine.
The Chinese energy industry has undergone changes since China Oil & Gas Pipeline Network Corp. (ChinaPipe) started operating as the government-created owner of the nation’s pipelines and terminal assets, formerly held by the country’s three state-owned energy majors.
