China’s LNG Market

This article will focus on China’s thirst for LNG in the global and historical context, analyze China’s current LNG development and trade strategies, identify the key players and newcomers in both the import and export spectrum, and draw policy implications for Canada in the prospects of China’s LNG market in the coming years. [...] Natural gas and LNG are regarded as the transitional fuels, or a part of the fuel-switching policy, for the short to medium term in reducing the use of coal in China’s energy mix before alternative and renewable energy sources take over. [...] To date, coal emissions are responsible for around one-third of the increase in global temperatures since pre-industrial times and are the single largest source of this growth, as shown in Figure 2. In China and India, where coal currently dominates the energy mix and gas has a relatively small share, there are steady increases in the share of natural gas. [...] This surge in demand has also pushed Chinese energy giants such as CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC (known as China’s “Big Three” national oil companies), to invest in overseas oil and gas assets in countries across Africa and the Middle East in the past two decades, and in Australia, Canada and the United States in recent years. [...] China had also pursued key projects with the United States in the areas of shale and LNG before the start of the U. S. trade war with China in the middle of 2018.