RIYADH: China’s imports of liquified natural gas from Russia saw a year-on-year surge of 100 percent in February, despite a drop in demand due to soaring prices, Bloomberg reported. China bought a total of 4011,000 tons of LNG from Russia as it sought to diversify its portfolio and reduce dependency on any one source. Total Chinese LNG imports dropped by 12 percent compared to February 2021, but Russia’s share of that climbed to 8 percent. LNG imports dropped 8.7 percent year-on-year in the first two month of 2022 as buyers opted for more affordable local coal. The hike in prices associated with LNG is primarily attributed to tight supply as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Chinese imports of oil-linked pipeline gas surged by 6.9 percent in February, down from 12 percent in the corresponding period a year earlier.