Oct 24 (Reuters) - China's fifth liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal, in the northeast city of Dalian and operated by PetroChina , will start receiving its first LNG shipment around mid-November, an industry official said on Monday.

The start-up comes about four months later than previously scheduled.

The Dalian terminal will start pumping gas via pipelines to local consumers before the end of the year, the official told Reuters.

 China's imports of the super cooled natural gas hit a daily high of 38,286 tonnes in September, and imports for the January-September period rose 26 percent on the year at 8.55 million tonnes, customs data showed earlier on Monday, after the country started importing the fuel in 2006.

The Dalian terminal is PetroChina's second LNG receiving facility with annual handling capacity of 3 million tonnes under phase-one development. The oil firm started in May its first LNG terminal in east China's Jiangsu province.

It was not immediately clear from which country PetroChina secured the first LNG shipment for Dalian, but the state oil firm has lined up long-term supply pacts with Qatar and Australia.