The fact that China is now the largest customer is mainly because Europe has phased out its dependence on Russian natural gas in a few years. That policy is motivated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It also plays a role in the fact that China is consuming significantly more gas this year to produce electricity, for example. Chinese households also consume more. It ensures that imports of Russian gas are so far 40 percent higher this year than in the same period last year. More will be coming soon. The Russian state gas company Gazprom recently signed a contract with the Chinese state company CNPC for the supply of additional gas from December. That would initially not happen until the beginning of next year.
But China is not a full replacement for Europe
Despite growth, the Chinese are still far behind Europe’s consumption before 2022. At that time, the EU imported about 140 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year. In the meantime, only a fraction of that is left. The Russian gas that now flows to Europe mainly goes to countries that are not at sea, such as Austria, Hungary and Slovakia. Remarkably, much of that Russian natural gas flows to Europe via Ukraine. That seems to be coming to an end soon, as the contract with Russia expires at the end of this year. The Ukrainian government has already said it does not want to extend this contract.
The figures above only concern gas that is transported via pipelines. Liquefied natural gas (Lng), which is mainly transported by ship, is not included. This gas is an important alternative to Russian natural gas for European countries. Imports have grown rapidly in recent years and amounted to 134 billion cubic meters last year. Although 17.8 billion cubic meters of it still comes from Russia.