BEIJING: China imported a record high 2.47 million mt of natural gas via pipelines in December, up 33.4% year-on-year and 39.8% on the month, data released late Saturday by the country’s General Administration of Customs showed.
The customs department reports natural gas trade data in metric tons, similar to LNG imports. December’s pipeline imports equate to about 3.41 Bcm.
China’s gas pipeline imports from Turkmenistan last month soared 26.5% year-on-year to 1.89 million mt, the highest to date, bringing total imports from Turkmenistan in 2014 to 18.74 million mt.
While this was a 5.8% rise from 2013, it was less than the 30 Bcm/year agreed between state-owned companies Turkmengaz and China National Petroleum Corp. in a sales and purchase deal struck in 2007. The two companies have since then agreed to boost China’s imports of Turkmen gas to 40 Bcm/year by this year and 65 Bcm/year by 2020.
China’s overall gas pipeline imports last year rose 14.7% from 2013 to 23.02 million mt, buoyed also by an exponential increase from Myanmar.The average delivered price of pipeline imports was $9.70/MMBtu last year, according to customs data, up from $9.45/MMBtu in 2013.
Gas imports from Myanmar were the costliest at $11.56/MMBtu, while Turkmen volumes cost an average $9.69/MMBtu last year.
