China’s LNG imports have been trending lower since early this year, with purchases of U.S. LNG suspended entirely amid the tariff spat that President Trump initiated as a means of fixing the United States’ trade deficit with most trade partners. Besides that, a milder winter, weak industrial demand, and higher gas pipeline imports are set to result in the first decline in China’s LNG imports since 2022, according to analysts.
LNG imports into China, the world’s top buyer of the super-chilled fuel, continue to be weaker than the prior-year month for the eighth consecutive month in June, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler cited by Bloomberg.
China is on track to import about 5 million tons of LNG this month, per Kpler’s data. This volume, if confirmed, would be a 12% decline compared to June last year.
While China hasn’t officially purchased Iranian barrels since June 2022, third-party data providers and traders signal flows have been resilient despite broad US sanctions. That’s because the Chinese have built a supply chain outside of western control, which includes dark fleet ships and yuan-denominated payments, supporting imports of more than 1 million barrels a day.
Now, these concerns appear to have taken the back seat in the face of a fresh dose of Middle Eastern instability and energy supply uncertainty—especially in gas. Almost a third of China’s gas imports come as LNG from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the WSJ noted in its report, citing Rystad Energy figures. Russia, in turn, is China’s third-largest supplier of LNG, after Australia and Qatar. But it is China’s biggest pipeline supplier, via the Power of Siberia 1, with flows this year set to reach 38 billion cu m, according to S&P Global.
Record-high domestic coal production and weaker coal-fired power generation in China have resulted in declining demand for thermal coal imports into the world’s biggest coal market, with the trend emerging earlier this year, after imports topped 500 million tons in 2024. The Chinese state central planner, meanwhile, has mandated a 10% increase in coal stockpiles for power generators.
In the last 25 years, China has gone from providing less than 2 percent of Latin America’s exports to being the second largest trade partner for the region and the single biggest trade partner of South America. This skyrocketing trade relation comes on the back of China’s ambitious Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, and gives Beijing enormous influence in critical emerging markets.
After coming into office, the administration of President Donald Trump has eliminated licenses for oil companies to operate in Venezuela, despite initial hints that it would continue them, with presidential envoy Richard Grenell’s visits to Caracas. This means that sanctions on state-owned PDVSA are fully back on. Chevron, the main U.S. corporation on the ground, is back to having only a secret license for minimum maintenance and security, as it still a shareholder in four joint ventures.
The power sector – which currently accounts for 18 percent of China’s gas consumption – is viewed by the industry as a key engine of growth, according to people involved in advising on energy policy. Under the sector’s latest proposal, China would build nearly 70 gigawatts of new gas-fired capacity by 2030, an almost 50 percent increase from 2025’s estimated level, they said, asking not to be named as the plan is not public.
Previously in 2025 CNOOC Ltd. announced three startups in the Bohai Sea and three in the South China Sea. The Bohai Sea projects are the Caofeidian 6-4 oilfield adjustment, phase 2 of the Luda 5-2 North field and the Bozhong 26-6 field. The South China Sea projects are Wenchang 19-1 oilfield phase 2, the Dongfang 29-1 field and the Panyu 11-12/10-1/10-2 Oilfield Adjustment Joint Development Project.
Over the first four months of 2025, China produced 1.58 billion tons of coal, which was 6.6% higher than the output booked for the same period a year earlier. In April alone, China produced 3.8% more coal than a year ago, at 389.31 million tons. This was down from a month earlier when production hit a record, but still strong enough to cement coal’s role in the country’s energy mix.