Idle Rambling On Natural Gas Imports Around The World; Wow, Look At Italy -- October 19, 2018

From wiki, natural gas imports, ranked by country (the data is not the most current, but looking at several sources, it's fairly accurate on a "currency" basis):

I assume the Canadian and US imports are pretty much based on region and cost; one might consider US-Canada one natural gas market (supply and demand).

I was curious about this after reading this in oilprice.com regarding China, from April, 2018:

Earlier this month Sinopec said it had plans to boost its LNG import capacity to 26 million tons annually over the next six years from the current 9 million tons. 

China’s total of LNG import capacity is 17 million tons. State energy companies have also begun turning depleted gas fields into gas storage facilities to avoid a repeat of this winter’s supply crunch.

Plans are to have all 25 underground gas storage sites before winter, and to increase LNG imports: according to Wood Mac, China’s LNG imports are set for a 25-percent increase this year, to 48-49 million tons. 

And this from same source, today:

Last year, China became the world’s second-largest LNG importer, taking in some 38 million tons of the fuel, a 46-percent increase on 2016. Even so, some parts of the country suffered shortages because the gas could not reach them fast enough.

As a result, China is now actively working on expanding its LNG storage capacity and pipeline network. It is also expanding its domestic natural gas production and storage capacity.

In the past 10 years China’s natural gas consumption has risen fourfold to more than 25 billion cu ft daily. Now, companies are turning depleted gas fields into storage facilities as part of efforts to avoid a repeat of last winter’s shortage.

After reading that China moved into the #2 position when ranked by natural gas imports, I was curious what country was #1. A lot of the data is "old" and, I assume, some of the data is questionable. Having said that, I was amazed to see where Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France were on the list. I was amazed. Especially with Italy. How do they afford to pay for all that energy? Wow. 

I've talked about the growing gap between energy-rich countries (pretty much only the US) and the energy-poor countries (pretty much the rest of the world). Yes, the Mideast countries are energy rich but they are hardly major economic players in the big scheme of things; even Russia and Saudi Arabia are not giants in the overall global economy.

Also, Italy at this link also -- at the top of the list. It's 2014 / 2015 data but Italy is right up there with China (of course, China, back in 2014/2015 was using a lot of coal, but that's another story).