Russian LNG shipments to China skyrocket

The surge makes Russia the country’s fourth largest supplier of the fuel

Chinese imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) soared by 43.9% to 6.5 million tons in 2022, according to data released by China’s customs agency on Friday.

In monetary terms, Russia’s exports of the super-chilled fuel to China increased by nearly two and a half times to $6.7 billion, the data shows. Russia is now China’s fourth biggest supplier of LNG.

Australia remained China’s largest provider, having sent 21.9 million tons of LNG worth $16 billion last year. Qatar and Malaysia followed with 15.7 and 7.4 million tons exported, respectively. In monetary terms, this amounted to a respective $11.5 billion and $6.8 billion in sales by Qatar and Malaysia.

Russia was followed by Indonesia, which shipped 3.7 million tons of LNG worth $3.1 billion and the US, whose exports of the fuel to the world’s biggest energy consumer reached 2.1 million tons, worth $2.2 billion.

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