Natural gas consumption will continue its double-digit growth

Sinochem New Network News China's natural gas market has entered a large-scale development stage, and natural gas consumption grows at a double-digit rate each year. In the next few years, there will be a huge gap between domestic natural gas supply and demand.

According to Dai Bingxin, deputy general manager of the marketing center of Datang Energy Chemical Company, the national natural gas production in 2010 reached 94.48 billion cubic meters, up 12.1% over the previous year; the imported LNG was 9.34 million tons, an increase of 75%; the first time the imported pipeline gas was 4.4 billion. Cubic meters; Unconventional natural gas development made positive progress, and the utilization of CBM was 3.6 billion cubic meters, an increase of 42.3%. The scale of the natural gas market has expanded rapidly, and major consumer destinations have been concentrated in the economically developed regions of eastern and central China. The annual apparent consumption of natural gas was around 110 billion cubic meters, an increase of 20.4% over the previous year.

Dai Bingxin said that in the next five years, the annual use of natural gas in Beijing will double that of today, with 15 billion cubic meters at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan, approaching 18 billion cubic meters; the Shenyang Economy centered in Shenyang, Liaoning Province The Loop is currently laying pipe networks and strengthening infrastructure construction. It is expected that by the end of 2012, the area will consume more than 1.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas. With the construction of regional gas pipeline networks accelerating, the energy consumption structure of urban and rural residents in China will continue to improve, and natural gas consumption will continue to grow rapidly. In 2011, consumption will be expected to reach 130 billion cubic meters, which is an increase of approximately 20% over the previous year. The natural gas consumption area will be further expanded. The economically developed areas in and around the area, the Bohai Rim, the Yangtze River Delta, and the southeastern coastal areas will become the most important consumer regions, and the consumption structure will continue to diversify. It is estimated that the annual natural gas production will be close to 110 billion cubic meters, an increase of 16%. According to industry sources, in 2015 China's natural gas supply structure was tentatively designated as domestically produced 170 billion cubic meters and net imports of 90 billion cubic meters. In addition, CBM production will reach 20 billion cubic meters in 2015, while coal-based natural gas production will also reach 30 billion cubic meters. This means that by 2015, China's natural gas consumption target is tentatively set at 260 billion cubic meters, and the average annual growth rate of consumption is more than 25%.

According to the reporter’s understanding, the National Development and Reform Commission has reported the natural gas price reform program to the State Council. The plan is to gradually increase the price level of natural gas, rationalize the relationship between natural gas and alternative energy prices, and establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism linked to alternative energy sources.

All along, low gas prices are one of the important factors encouraging the consumption of natural gas downstream markets. However, last year, China's natural gas price reform was restarted, and gas prices in various regions have risen. Experts believe that the natural gas price increase during the 12th Five-Year Plan will have a certain impact on consumption.

People concerned with the National Development and Reform Commission also stated that China will continue to eliminate natural gas price inversions at home and abroad by increasing gas prices, and ultimately achieve rational allocation of resources. With the gradual increase in national spending power, natural gas price increases will continue. Therefore, although in the short term, there is still a price gap between natural gas market prices and alternative energy sources, with the increase in gas prices, the substitution advantage will gradually weaken, and eventually will restrict the consumption of natural gas. Not long ago, PetroChina announced that during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, the share of natural gas in the energy production and consumption structure will increase from the current 4% to more than 8%. With the acceleration of the national natural gas price adjustment, the natural gas industry will accelerate the formation of a booming production and sales, volume and price rise.

Industry insiders believe that natural gas consumption growth and price increase will continue in the next five years, which will be beneficial to city gas companies. Once the ex-factory price of natural gas can be successfully transmitted to the downstream, local gas supply companies will benefit greatly.

It can be expected that as the living standards of residents increase, the demand for clean energy will increase and the demand for natural gas in China will continue to flourish. In the future, China will form a multi-gas source safeguard system that is mainly based on domestic gas and supplemented by imported gas. The domestic natural gas supply will present four major patterns: West-to-East gas transmission, North-to-South-to-South-to-North, coal-to-natural gas, and sea gas landing.