Natural gas imports reached 20.02 million tonnes during the first two months of this year, the data from the General Administration of Customs shows.
The world’s largest LNG importer paid about $8.4 billion for these gas imports, down 12.7 percent compared to 2024.
The Administration releases combined import data for January and February due to the Lunar New Year holiday.
Official data on LNG imports for January-February this year has not yet been released.
As previously reported by LNG Prime, China’s natural gas imports, including pipeline gas and LNG, decreased by 2.8 percent year-on-year to 127.87 million tonnes in 2025.
Moreover, China reported a 10.6 percent year-on-year decline in LNG imports to 68.43 million tonnes of LNG last year.
However, China’s LNG imports jumped to 8.48 million tonnes in December, up 19.9 percent year-on-year.
This was the highest monthly figure in 2025.
Middle East crisis
China has been affected by the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but not as much as India, which has invoked emergency measures, prioritizing gas allocation to essential sectors, or other Asian countries such as Bangladesh, which is forced to buy spot LNG cargoes at extremely high prices.
The country is buying oil from Iran and LNG from QatarEnergy under long-term contracts.
“Despite their status as the two largest LNG importers, China and Japan’s exposure to Qatari LNG in their gas supply mix is relatively limited, at just 6 percent and 5 percent respectively, according to a report by Vortexa on Tuesday.
“To mitigate the Qatari LNG shortfall, importers in both markets can switch to alternative fuels like coal or optimize within their gas and LNG portfolios,” the report said.
“The main buyers of Qatari LNG in China (CNOOC, PetroChina, and Sinopec) and Japan (JERA, Kansai Electric) have flexible term LNG volumes from the US and Australia, which may be used to at least partially offset the Qatari LNG shortfall,” Vortexa said.
