In November, China imported 20.78 million mt of coal, up 8.5% year on year, the GAC data showed.

Russia has begun gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline, the largest gas project in its history and a symbol of Moscow’s diplomatic pivot towards Beijing at a time of worsening relations with the west.

The relaxing of curbs on coal power, combined with shrinking investment in solar and wind energy, have caused further alarm over carbon dioxide emissions in China.

The ‘Power of Siberia’ pipeline, due to open on Dec. 2, will pipe natural gas around 3,000 km (1,865 miles) from Russia’s Siberian fields to the fading industrial region, which has lagged the push to gas in China’s south and east.

“Since coal is still a major resource, we will continue to rely on coal when we need it - and right now for instance, the economy is slowing and renewables are still relatively weak,” said Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Institute for Energy Policy Studies.

With oil and gas as core of the cooperation between the two countries, China is currently eyeing new opportunities to join Qatar's upstream and downstream LNG industry in addition to plans of increasing its LNG imports from Qatar, while Chinese companies are tapping Qatar Petroleum (QP) to enter China's upstream energy industry and gain access to a 1.4 billion people market, China's Ambassador to Qatar, Zhou Jian, said at a press conference at his residence

Over January-October, China imported 47.43 million mt of LNG, up 14.2% on year, the customs data showed.

Saudi shipments grew to 8.41 million tonnes, or 1.98 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with 1.74 million bpd in September and 1.12 million bpd in same period last year,

In the first 10 months of this year, China generated 38.62 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) electricity from solar and wind resources, accounting for 6.6% of total power generation,

German chemical giant BASF has begun construction of its $10-billion integrated petrochemicals project in China’s southern province of Guangdong,