China, the world’s largest energy consumer, boosted its imports of liquefied natural gas by 4 percent in July.
LNG imports totalled 5.03 million tonnes last month, according to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs.
In the January-July period, the country imported 36.22 million tonnes of chilled fuel, a year-on-year rise of 9.3 percent.
On the other side, China’s pipeline gas imports dropped 23.2 percent to 2.31 million tonnes.
In the seven-month period, piped imports declined to 19.49 million tonnes.
China is currently the world’s second-largest importer of LNG behind Japan but this could change this year.
Japan’s January-July LNG imports declined 6.5 percent to 42.40 million tonnes as the Covid-19 pandemic stopped economic activity.