China‘s hunger for LNG confounds all forecasts

The growth in China's LNG imports is fundamentally driven by government policy

The prospects for the LNG market have changed dramatically in the last two years as China has more than doubled its LNG imports, confounding all expectations. As recently as mid-2016 the outlook was all doom and gloom, with the International Energy Agency predicting the international market would be over-supplied and stricken with low prices until at least the end of the decade. However, prices have since been rising rather than falling. Average Chinese LNG import prices in September 2018 were US$9.89 per mmBtu, up by 37pc on prices in 2016. And it looks as though the trend will continue through 2019 as China chases its domestic clean-air goals, despite mistakes along the way. Last year over