China raised its liquefied natural gas imports by 69% last year to meet rising domestic demand for the relatively clean-burning fuel, final monthly data released by the General Administration of Customs confirmed Friday.

China shipped in 1.03 million tons of LNG in December, up 87% from a year earlier, bringing the year's total to 9.36 million tons, the data showed, in line with numbers issued by the Hong Kong-based China Customs Statistics Information Center on Jan. 19.

LNG imports are expected to rise to 12 million metric tons this year, according to the research unit of China National Petroleum Corp.

In a forecast issued Thursday, CNPC said domestic natural gas output could rise by 11% to 105 billion cubic meters this year, while consumption will hit 130 billion cubic meters.

CNPC, the nation's top oil and gas producer by volume, will bring online its first two LNG receiving terminals this year, one in northeastern Dalian city and one in eastern Jiangsu province, each with annual receiving capacity of 3 million and 3.5 million tons, respectively.

China also imported 446,250 tons of natural gas in December.

Friday's data confirmed that December crude-oil imports reached 20.86 million metric tons, equivalent to 4.93 million barrels a day, down 1.9% from a year earlier.
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