Oil and Gas to decline in China
- Alexei Bykov
- Jul 26
- 2 min read
Renewables and coal are working to push out crude oil in China
July 24, 2025 - Clyde Russel
China installed 46 gigawatts (GW) of wind power and 198 GW of solar in the first five months of the year, as well as 3 GW of hydropower, according to data from the National Energy Administration.
In contrast, just 18 GW of thermal power generation, mainly coal, was added in the January to May period, meaning that renewable energy accounted for 93% of the capacity additions.
China is installing solar at such a fast pace that Lauri Myllyvirta, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, calculated that in May it was adding 100 solar panels every second.
However, China also has 227 GW of coal-fired power under construction and a further 257 GW in the pipeline, according to the Global Energy Monitor.
China accounts for 83% of the global coal-fired generation capacity currently being built and its 1,789 GW of operating coal-fired generation accounts for 55% of the world total.
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China Refuses to Buy Expensive LNG Despite Peak Demand
July 8, 2025 - Irina Slav
China is not buying LNG on the spot market despite a seasonal increase in demand for electricity for air-conditioning, Bloomberg has reported, noting traders had been hoping for a price jump in spot LNG. It seems, however, from China’s perspective, spot LNG is already quite expensive.
“We expect that China’s LNG imports will remain weak in the second half of the year, amid subdued demand, higher piped gas imports and an uncertain macroeconomic outlook,” International Energy Agency gas analyst Gergely Molnar told the publication.
Meanwhile, natural gas deliveries via pipeline from Russia are set to jump by 25%, the report also said, suggesting China was being price-sensitive. This, according to the IEA’s Molnar, will not last long because China needs to fill its gas storage ahead of winter, and it will return to the LNG spot market to do that.
China’s LNG imports have been trending lower since early this year, with purchases of U.S. LNG suspended entirely amid the tariff spat that President Trump initiated as a means of fixing the United States’ trade deficit with most trade partners. Besides that, a milder winter, weak industrial demand, and higher gas pipeline imports are set to result in the first decline in China’s LNG imports since 2022, according to analysts.
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