China briefly overtook Japan as the world’s largest consumer of LNG in November, before slipping back to end 2018 in second place.
The country added a staggering 12.7 million tonnes to its LNG imports last year, bringing its total for 2018 to 54 million tonnes, ahead of South Korea’s 44 million tonnes but still behind Japan’s 82.8 million tonnes.
Forecasters confidently expect China to become the largest buyer as it continues to tackle air pollution and reduce its dependence on coal.
