In 2021, the size of China’s liquefied natural gas imports surpassed every other country. After falling back to second place in 2022, it reclaimed the top spot in 2023 and stayed there in 2024. In addition, new data from BloombergNEF shows China also holds the most long-term contracts, with Southeast Asia – especially Malaysia and Brunei – among its key suppliers.
“In our 2030 outlook [published earlier this year], we expected China to be the major growth driver of liquefied natural gas demand, and following China is emerging Asia: Southeast Asia, and South Asia,” says Ziyue Daniela Li, a Beijing-based senior associate from BloombergNEF’s Asia Pacific Gas team.
Surging Chinese demand is prolonging liquefied natural gas (LNG) production, even as other markets (such as Japan and South Korea) reduce their use of the fuel.
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This worries climate change activists and scientists, who warn that continued LNG consumption will exacerbate global heating via both CO2 and methane emissions.
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China’s LNG imports rise came just as Asia’s two traditional major LNG-importing countries, Japan and South Korea, posted consumption peaks. Japan’s imports have been falling since 2015, owing to its shrinking population and growing renewable energy capacity. South Korea’s consumption peaked around 2020-2021 and is expected to decline further this decade.
Chinese growth has more than offset those declines, driving the expansion of LNG production across Southeast Asia.
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According to BloombergNEF’s Li, China is expected to maintain and even increase […] import figures, at least until 2035. It will have the world’s largest collection of long-term LNG contracts and continue growing its orders from all the major LNG exporters.
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