China imported 321,380 tonnes of liquefied natural gas from Russia in March, down 35% versus the same month last year, according to Chinese customs and Refinitiv tanker tracking data, with buyers put off by rocketing spot prices.

China imported nearly 400,000 tonnes from Russia in February, and 264,000 tonnes in January.

The imports in March mostly involved deals agreed before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, and the drop in purchases from Russia corresponded with a general decline in imports from all destinations due to high spot prices LNG-AS.

China’s overall LNG imports last month fell 17% year-on-year to 4.63 million tonnes, the lowest in two years.
China regularly imports LNG cargoes from the Yamal project in the Russian Arctic, in which Chinese state-owned company CNPC and CNOOC Ltd 0883.HK own stakes. But last month imports from the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s far east accounted for 59% of China’s imports from Russia.

China imported 190,000 tonnes of Sakhalin-2 LNG in March, tripling February’s total, while there had been no purchase from that project in January, according to shipping tracking data from Refinitiv.

Sakhalin-2 is controlled and operated by Russian gas giant Gazprom GAZP.MM. Other stakeholders are Shell, Japan’s Mitsui & Co 8031.T and Mitsubishi Corp 8058.T.

Shell announced on March 1, shortly after Russia began what it called “special military operation” on Ukraine, that it would exit all its Russian operations.

Japan, however, decided not to abandon the massive LNG project for the sake of its energy security.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Muyu Xu; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)