Page 16 - GLNG Week 02 2021
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China’s oil, gas imports climb in 2020
PERFORMANCE CHINA’S crude oil and natural gas imports both In November, top economic planner the
climbed to record highs in 2020, despite the National Development and Reform Commis-
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic severely sion (NDRC) said the country’s gas supplies
depressing economic activity. would be enough to meet peak winter demand,
Oil deliveries surged by 7.3% year on year to after the commission had encouraged the coun-
a record 542.37mn tonnes (10.89mn barrels per try’s state majors to boost both domestic gas pro-
day), as Chinese buyers raced to snap up cheap duction and imports.
cargoes of the fuel following the price collapse in As yet, there have been no reports to suggest
March 2020. a repeat of past rationing efforts, where indus-
Imports began to cool off in the second half of trial and commercial demand was sacrificed in
the year after peaking at 12.99mn bpd in June, as favour of residential needs. China appears
the backlog of shipments was cleared and the pri- However, getting supplies of the fuel out to
vate downstream sector ran out of import quo- consumers has not been without its challenges. to have avoided
tas. The country received just 38.47mn tonnes Wood Mackenzie noted on January 13 that spot
(9.1mn bpd) in December 2020, according to prices of trucked LNG in China had been highly a repeat of
General Administration of Customs (GAC) volatile in December 2020.
data released on January 14, down 15% from Wood Mackenzie research director Miaoru historic gas
10.82mn bpd in December 2019 and 11.08mn Huang said: “The price spike came as a huge shortages that
bpd in November 2020. surprise to market participants. Before winter
Imports of piped natural gas as well as LNG, started, [the] consensus was that there would be left households
meanwhile, increased by 5.3% y/y to 101.66mn a well-supplied market with subdued trucked
tonnes. With the country scrambling to meet LNG prices, as was the case for most of 2020. As without heating.
soaring demand amid plummeting winter tem- a result, trucked LNG supply had been tightened
peratures, a new monthly record of 11.23mn to make room for piped gas in the current winter
tonnes was set in December 2020. season.”
Reuters cited shiptracking data as showing The consultancy cited logistical issues –
that LNG imports in December 2020 set a new such as frozen roads and a November 2020
high of more than 9mn tonnes. fire that knocked the Beihai LNG terminal in
Despite the spike in demand, caused by Guangxi Province out of action until early last
several spells of sub-zero temperatures across month – coupled with the country’s strong
the country, China appears to have avoided economic recovery and renewed pursuit of
a repeat of historic gas shortages that left coal-to-gas switching as being behind the
households without heating. price volatility.
P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 15•January•2021
