China's production of natural gas rose 23.1 percent last year,
faster than in 2006, to 69.31 billion cubic meters as the country
used more "clean" energy, an industry association said.
In 2006, output jumped 19.2 percent to 58.55 billion cubic
meters, the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association
(CPCIA) said. It also said that output would likely hit 76 billion
cubic meters this year.
China used 55.6 billion cubic meters of gas in 2006, an increase
of 21.6 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics from
BP.
China has set a target of raising the proportion of natural gas
in its total energy consumption to 5.3 percent in 2010 from 2.8
percent in 2005, amid efforts to curb pollution. Coal now accounts
for about 70 percent of total energy consumption.
The expansion of the natural gas infrastructure, including
pipelines, reflected the rapid increases in output and consumption,
the CPCIA said.
China plans to start building a second east-west gas pipeline
this year. The first such pipeline went into commercial operation
in 2004.
The new pipeline is scheduled to become operational in 2010 and
will have a designed annual transport capacity of 30 billion cubic
meters. It will mainly move natural gas from Central Asia to the
Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas, the country's two most developed
regions.
Construction on another pipeline, which will link the Puguang
Gas Field in the southwestern province of Sichuan, one of the
country's largest, with the Yangtze River Delta, started last
August.
(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2008)
