China May Need to Boost LNG Imports by 80%

China will likely need to raise LNG imports by almost 80 per cent from current levels to meet demand for the fuel, Bloomberg reported citing Wood Mackenzie Ltd.

The country needs to purchase an additional 37 million metric tons of LNG by 2030 on top of current contracted volumes of 46 million tons, Graham Tyler, manager of gas and power research for Southeast Asia, said.

The country may import about 68 billion cubic meters a gas a year from Russia via pipeline, Bloomberg quoted Tyler as saying.

Tyler noted that shale gas development in China may grow after 2023 because the geology of the basins may require companies to develop new drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques.

Chinese government data showed that imports of LNG rose 34 percent to 1.13 million metric tons in March from a year earlier.