Trade of natural gas worldwide increased by around 5 percent in 2016 year-on-year, according to British Petroleum's (BP) Statistical Review of World Energy 2017 report on Wednesday.
BP noted that around 1.08 trillion cubic meters of gas was traded in the global market in 2016 - an increase of 4.85 percent compared to 2015 when the amount traded amounted to 1.03 trillion cubic meters.
The report showed that 68 percent of the natural gas trade was made through pipelines and the remainder was through LNG.
Last year, 737.5 billon cubic meters of gas was sold through pipelines and sales of 346.6 billion cubic meters were made in LNG form.
- Pipeline leader Russia, LNG leader Qatar
Russia was the country that sold the most natural gas via pipelines in 2016 with 190.8 billion cubic meters, while the country that saw the most gas demand was Germany with 99.3 billion cubic meters.
Norway was the second country with the most exports by pipeline, and Canada ranked third.
However, Qatar sold 104.4 billion cubic meters of LNG, followed by Australia with 56.8 billion cubic meters and Malaysia exported 32.1 billion cubic meters of LNG.
The countries with the most LNG demand were Japan, South Korea and China.
The total amount of LNG purchased by the three Asian countries totalled 186.7 billion cubic meters.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr
Countries with the most gas sales by pipeline (2016)
Russia190.8 billion cubic meters
Norway109.8 billion cubic meters
Canada82.4 billion cubic meters
The U.S.60.3 billion cubic meters
Netherlands52.3 billion cubic meters
Countries with the most gas sales as LNG (2016)
Qatar104.4 billion cubic meters
Australia56.8 billion cubic meters
Malaysia32.1 billion cubic meters
Nigeria23.7 billion cubic meters
Brunei21.2 billion cubic meters