China’s LNG imports up in January

China boosted its LNG imports in January by 16.4 percent, as compared to the same month a year before, according to the General Administration of Customs data.

The world’s largest energy consumer imported 2.46 million mt of liquefied natural gas in January, the data shows.

Chinese yearly imports of LNG declined by 1.1 percent in 2015 to 19.63 million mt, for the first time since the country began importing chilled gas in 2006, the U.S. EIA said.

The country’s LNG imports have grown steadily in the last 10 years, from 0.1 Bcf/d in 2006 to 1.3 Bcf/d in 2010, and have more than doubled since then.

They reached their peak in 2014 at 2.7 Bcf/d, making China the third-largest LNG importer in the world after Japan and South Korea.

However, LNG imports dropped last year due to a slowdown in the growth of the Chinese economy and lower prices of competing fuels, EIA said.

LNG World News Staff