China could beat Japan as the largest natural gas importer in 2018

It has surpassed Korea as the second importer in 2017, and is on its way to pulling Japan down.

Enerdata reported that China, currently the largest importer of coal and oil, is expected to overtake Japan as the world's largest importer of natural gas in 2018. In some months of 2017 (September and November), China's imports already topped Japan's and the trend is likely to repeat in 2018, so that China may possibly top Japan for the whole year. The country is currently looking forward to replacing coal with natural gas in its energy mix in order to curb its pollution and CO2 emissions.

However, Japan is expected to remain the largest importer of LNG until 2028 even if Chinese LNG imports are likely to rise significantly in the next few years. In 2017, Chinese LNG imports surged and China overtook South Korea as the second largest global LNG importer.

This article was originally published by Enerdata.