China’s imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rose 95 percent in July year-on-year as the country is continuing to push its plan to cut addiction to coal to reduce pollution.

The world’s largest energy consumer imported 3.12 million mt of the chilled fuel last month as compared to 1.60 million mt in July 2016, according to the General Administration of Customs data.

This was the highest monthly volume since January this year when China took 3.44 million mt of LNG.

In the January-July period, LNG imports increased 45 percent on year to 19 million mt with most of the supplies coming from Australia and Qatar, the customs data shows.

China started importing LNG in 2006 and currently is the world’s third-largest importer of the fuel.

The country’s LNG imports are expected to continue to rise on the back of higher natural gas demand and the government’s push to reduce coal usage for power generation.(LNG World News Staff)