Natural gas consumption to increase

China Daily, January 21, 2011

China's apparent natural gas consumption is expected to grow by 22.6 percent in 2011 from 106 billion cubic meters (cu m) in 2010.

That's as domestic consumption of the clean fuel is set to surge in accordance with the country's need to reduce carbon emissions, according to a report released by the research arm of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

The demand for natural gas may hit around 130 billion cu m in 2011, and the figure is set to climb to 230 billion cu m by 2015, the country's biggest oil and gas maker by market value said on Thursday.

Domestic output of the fuel will reach 150 billion cu m in 2015, a rise of 58 percent compared with 2010. "The three biggest State-owned oil and gas producers saw their natural gas production register a double-digit increase in 2010," said Duan Zhaofang, a natural gas researcher at the CNPC Research Institute of Economics and Technology.

China has become a net importer of the clean fuel since 2006 and its imports may reach 30 billion cu m this year from 2010, the report showed. That will include 15 billion cu m of piped gas and 120 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

China imported 4.4 billion cu m of natural gas from Central Asia in 2010, while construction began on a gas pipeline linking Myanmar and China in June and is expected to be operational in 2013. The world's largest energy consumer is currently negotiating with Russia, the world's largest supplier of oil and gas, to set up a pipeline that is expected to transport a total of 70 billion cu m of the fuel annually from 2015.

"Price remains a major factor in deterring natural gas imports," Duan said.

China hiked the factory price of domestically made natural gas in 2010, laying the foundations for a reform of the pricing scheme within one or two years, she said.

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