Gross imports
China gets natural gas from three places: domestic production, cross-border pipelines, and LNG delivered by ship.
The controls change every component on the page. Start with the latest gas year, or switch to calendar years if that is how you normally compare the data.
Gas Year vs Calendar Year
The standard gas year runs October through September, which aligns with the northern-hemisphere winter heating season that runs Oct-Mar (and summer season that runs Apr-Sep). A calendar-year view will split the same heating season across two labels.
The first chart overlays the five most recent periods. It answers the quickest question in the dataset: are total imports running above or below the same point in earlier years?
We can see from the chart that China's total imports have dropped to the lower end of the 5 year range in Feb and Mar 2026, in response to the Hormuz situation.
Then separate LNG from pipeline gas
Total imports combine two physically different markets. Pipeline gas arrives through fixed cross-border infrastructure. LNG arrives by ship and is usually discussed in tonnes, while the wider gas balance is expressed here in billion cubic metres.
The balancing factor for global gas markets is LNG, and in particular spot or destination flexible LNG. This is why it is interesting to seperate pipeline vs LNG imports.
The bars keep the reported LNG and pipeline components separate. The two dashed lines show the prior five-year monthly averages for total imports and LNG, so the selected year can be read against a seasonal baseline without mixing partial and complete annual totals.
We can see that LNG imports have been the main driver of the drop in China's total gas imports.
Import stack
LNG and Pipeline Imports
Apparent demand
For JODI, Apparent demand = Production + Imports - Exports - Stock change For China, stock change is reported as zero, so the Apparent demand number includes gas moving into storage.
Read this chart as a balance measure rather than a direct meter reading of end use. The residual check in the table below shows whether the published components reconcile with the calculated-demand series.
Balance
Calculated DemandiJODI calculated demand is production plus imports minus exports, adjusted for stock change. China stock change is reported as zero in this dataset, so this is apparent demand and can include gas going into storage.
What happens between the source and the chart
The page does not forecast or fill missing months. It filters the public JODI file to China natural gas, converts the reported volume rows from million cubic metres to bcm, orders the observations on the selected year basis, and displays only submitted actuals.
Data mechanics
How the JODI View Works
- Read China `NATGAS` monthly rows from the JODI Gas World Database.
- Convert JODI `M3` rows from million cubic meters to bcm.
- Order the selected view by gas year from October through September or by calendar year from January through December.
- Display only reported JODI actual months.
- Check the balance residual: production + imports - exports - stock change - calculated demand.
JODI Source database flow codes
The flow codes below are the labels used in the source database. The source panel links to the downloadable CSV, JODI’s item-name reference, and the manual describing how national administrations submit the data.
Definitions
JODI Flow Codes
Sources