China once again becomes the largest importer of liquefied natural gas: problems for Europe
China returned to the top spot among LNG importers last year, with shipments rising 12% to nearly 71 million tons, Bloomberg reported , after analyzing tanker tracking data.
The resumption of LNG shipments follows a weak 2022, in which high LNG prices due to the gas crisis in Europe dampened demand and pushed China to seek cheaper alternatives to the liquefied fuel.
China is believed to remain the main driver of LNG demand globally even in the long term. According to Rystad Energy, the country will see a 20% increase in demand for liquefied natural gas over the next two years, with an annual total of 84 million tonnes in 2025. According to the consultancy, demand will further rise to 136 million tonnes by 2030.
If demand growth in China is faster than the addition of new production capacity, we could once again see price wars, just as Europe increases its dependence on liquefied fuel with more terminals. floating regasification.
Last year there were fears that Europe might find itself in gas trouble again, as China turned to the spot market to secure cargoes for the winter, having signed several long-term supply agreements. term with the United States and Qatar.
For the moment, this has had no effect on gas supply in Europe, mainly due to the relatively mild weather, but winter is not over yet and supply could still tighten as the EU draws on its winter storage of gas.
China is also trying to diversify its supplies. It is a major customer of US LNG producers, but is also a large investor in Russia's Arctic LNG 2 project, which was recently added to the US sanctions list. This has reportedly led to a rare request for sanctions relief from China, which wants to remain a buyer of LNG from both countries.
Paradoxically, the US sanctions affecting the development of Russian LNG, especially the large Artic 2 field, could potentially put the European gas market in difficulty with a tightening of supply.
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The article China once again becomes the largest importer of liquefied natural gas: problems for Europe comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-cina-torna-a-essere-il-primo-importatore-di-gas-naturale-liquefatto-problemi-per-leuropa/ on Thu, 04 Jan 2024 15:39:34 +0000.