China pollution fight will lead to record year for natural gas demand, but not terrible shortages and price spikes, experts say
- Last year, many villagers were left without heat after Beijing’s ‘war on pollution’ accelerated plans to replace boilers and stoves using coal with units using natural gas, overwhelming the supply of the cleaner burning fuel.
Demand for natural gas in mainland China will surge to another record this winter, but the severe shortages and wild price spikes seen last year won’t reappear, experts say.
“This winter’s gas supply would be still on the tight side, but overall not far off from being in balance with demand,” said Zhi Xiaoye, president of Beijing Gas Group, the city’s largest gas supplier and one of the largest distributors nationally. It is part of Hong Kong-listed municipal government-controlled conglomerate Beijing Enterprises.
Mainland China’s consumption for the cleaner burning fuel surged 17.7 per cent year on year in the year’s first nine months, faster than the 15.3 per cent recorded in the whole of last year, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, which regulates the industry.
China, which last year overtook South Korea as the world’s second-largest importer of natural gas in liquefied form, accounted for just over a third of global natural gas demand growth so far this year, according to Sanford Bernstein senior analysts Neil Beveridge.
For the year’s first 10 months, China’s domestic production grew 6.3 per cent from the same period last year, while imports jumped by a third, said the National Bureau of Statistics.