China’s natural gas imports, including pipeline gas and LNG, dropped by 3.6 percent in January-March when compared to the same period last year, according to customs data.
Natural gas imports during the first quarter reached 26.77 million tonnes, the data from the General Administration of Customs shows.
This compares to 27.73 million tonnes in the same period last year.
However, the country’s gas imports rose 11.2 percent to 8.86 million tonnes in March.
China paid about $2.44 billion for gas imports in the first three months of this year, down 3.1 percent when compared to the last year.
There is currently no available data for LNG imports during the period.
China’s LNG imports dropped by 11.9 percent in January-February to about 11.12 million.
In February, China received 5.21 million tonnes of LNG, up by 8.2 percent when compared to the last year, while in January LNG imports dropped by 24.2 percent to 5.91 million tonnes.
China has started to relax Covid-related measures in December last year and spot prices dropped considerably this year.
The JKM for May settled at $12.625/MMBtu on Wednesday.