China hedges its energy bets as Russia pipeline plan remains on hold

The controversial Power of Siberia 2 pipeline seems less likely to commence after China spent 2024 diversifying its energy imports

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Though the Power of Siberia pipeline is up and running, the construction of the Power of Siberia 2 line from Russia to China is in doubt. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:00pm, 13 Feb 2025

China, the world’s leading consumer of natural gas, diversified its energy imports last year enough to reduce its risk exposure to any individual market – a move which analysts said has reduced the short-term likelihood of launching the controversial Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, a joint project with Russia.

Observers said Beijing could instead buy more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States to address the bilateral trade imbalance US President Donald Trump has used as pretext to levy tariffs against Chinese goods.

The world’s second-largest economy imported 76.7 million tonnes of LNG last year, up 7.7 per cent, while pipeline gas imports rose 13.1 per cent year on year to 55 million tonnes, according to Chinese customs figures.

Its LNG imports from Australia totalled 26.2 million tonnes in 2024, accounting for about 34 per cent of total imports.

Turkmenistan was the biggest source of China’s gas imports shipped by pipeline, transporting US$9.6 billion worth of the commodity last year for 45.37 per cent of all pipeline imports.

Russia ranked a close second, with its US$8 billion in pipelined shipments accounting for 38.1 per cent of China’s total. It was also the third-largest exporter of LNG to China – behind Qatar- with 8.31 million tonnes, or 10.8 per cent of total imports.