Chinese LNG imports have slumped in 2022 so far and they have been offset by increasing pipeline natural gas imports from the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union.
Lockdowns in large cities like Shanghai because of rising Covid-19 cases curbed economic and industrial activity as well as fuel demand, though China has said these measures will all end in June.
Chinese LNG imports tumbled by 33.4 percent in April 2022 to their lowest monthly total in over two years of 4.34 million tonnes from the April 2021 total of 6.52MT, according to the General Administration of Customs.
Deliveries to China’s network of 22 import terminals in the January to April period of 2022 slumped to 21.68MT, a fall of 17.3 percent from the 26.22MT total logged in January-April 2021.
Chinese LNG imports had dropped by 17.9 percent in March 2022 to 4.63MT compared with 5.64MT in the same month of 2021, but still higher than the most recent April total.
China said its pipeline natural gas imports during the first four months of 2022 increased by 7.7 percent to 14.28MT.
The Chinese receive varying volumes of pipeline gas through links from the former Asian republics of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as from Russia since December 2019 as part of Gazprom's “Power of Siberia” project.
Uzbekistan has restarted gas exports to China after temporarily halting them at the beginning of 2022 to meet its own increasing domestic demand.
The Central Asia-China pipeline originates in Turkmenistan and passes through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
The Central Asia-China gas pipeline, which is 3,665 kilometres (2.277 miles) in length, starts at Gedaim on the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan border and terminates at Horgos in the Xinjiang region of China before joining with the Chinese grid.
Turkmenistan was China’s largest supplier of gas by pipeline in the period January-April followed by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
