diff --git a/lib/kafka/compression.rb b/lib/kafka/compression.rb
index af919e2e6..8e7848192 100644
--- a/lib/kafka/compression.rb
+++ b/lib/kafka/compression.rb
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 require "kafka/snappy_codec"
 require "kafka/gzip_codec"
+require "kafka/lz4_codec"
 
 module Kafka
   module Compression
@@ -8,6 +9,7 @@ def self.find_codec(name)
       when nil then nil
       when :snappy then SnappyCodec.new
       when :gzip then GzipCodec.new
+      when :lz4  then LZ4Codec.new
       else raise "Unknown compression codec #{name}"
       end
     end
@@ -16,6 +18,7 @@ def self.find_codec_by_id(codec_id)
       case codec_id
       when 1 then GzipCodec.new
       when 2 then SnappyCodec.new
+      when 3 then LZ4Codec.new
       else raise "Unknown codec id #{codec_id}"
       end
     end
diff --git a/lib/kafka/lz4_codec.rb b/lib/kafka/lz4_codec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..83f4c5831
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/kafka/lz4_codec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+module Kafka
+  class LZ4Codec
+    def initialize
+      require "extlz4"
+    rescue LoadError
+      raise LoadError, "using lz4 compression requires adding a dependency on the `extlz4` gem to your Gemfile."
+    end
+
+    def codec_id
+      3
+    end
+
+    def compress(data)
+      LZ4.encode(data)
+    end
+
+    def decompress(data)
+      LZ4.decode(data)
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/lib/kafka/version.rb b/lib/kafka/version.rb
index e8fc68249..ce87bd3a8 100644
--- a/lib/kafka/version.rb
+++ b/lib/kafka/version.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 module Kafka
-  VERSION = "0.5.1"
+  VERSION = "0.5.2"
 end
diff --git a/ruby-kafka.gemspec b/ruby-kafka.gemspec
index d35dc02f9..e5221485a 100644
--- a/ruby-kafka.gemspec
+++ b/ruby-kafka.gemspec
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.add_development_dependency "rspec-benchmark"
   spec.add_development_dependency "activesupport"
   spec.add_development_dependency "snappy"
+  spec.add_development_dependency "extlz4"
   spec.add_development_dependency "colored"
   spec.add_development_dependency "rspec_junit_formatter", "0.2.2"
   spec.add_development_dependency "dogstatsd-ruby", ">= 3.0.0"