And it will do so again in 2011. Hmmm…
China’s Nat Gas Demand Up 20% in 2010, and Will Grow 20% In 2011
Natural gas demand to soar
By Du Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-29 09:06 Comments(0) PrintMail Large Medium Small

BEIJING – China’s natural gas demand will rise 20 percent in 2011 to 130 billion cubic meters (cu m) and production will increase 16 percent to 110 billion cu m, according to a statement from the National Energy Administration (NEA) on Jan 28.

According to the NEA, China’s gas consumption in 2010 was 110 billion cu m, a rise of 20 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, production was 94.5 billion cu m, a 12 percent increase from 2009.

Wang Siqiang, deputy director at the NEA, said the expansion of the nation’s pipeline coverage means that natural gas consumption will keep increasing rapidly in the coming years. In addition to the areas close to production sites for gas, which are traditionally major consumers, other areas, such as Bohai Bay, the Yangtze River and the Pearl River Delta regions, will also become consumers as their economies expand.

“The consumption growth rate will be more than 20 percent in the next 10 years because this is now the peak period for China’s urbanization and industrialization,” said Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University.

The country’s 2011 power demand may rise 9 percent to 4.5 trillion kilowatt-hours, and the power-generating capacity will increase by 80 gigawatts (gW), bringing total capacity to 1,040 gW, according to the NEA.

The increases in generating capacity will result in greater consumption of coal, the country’s biggest energy source, which in turn will increase the demand for natural gas.

However, Lin said natural gas, as the major substitute for coal, has an obvious disadvantage as its price is high and will rise further in the future.

“The price of imported natural gas is twice as high as that in the domestic market. Even after the government’s price adjustment, it is still 60 to 70 percent higher,” Lin said. “Also, I believe the increase in imported natural gas will influence the domestic price, driving it higher,” he said.

“As a clean-energy resource, it will definitely cost more because of the increasing demand,” he added.

China imported 9.3 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2010, up 75 percent year-on-year.

Xu Bo, senior analyst at China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), said the country produced 9 million tons of LNG in 2010 and estimated that 2011 production will reach 19 million tons, according to an interview he gave to Caijing.com.cn.

Lin said that as a supplement to natural gas, imports of LNG may decline if China’s natural gas consumption keeps increasing.

——-[End of article]——–

China’s 2015 Apparent Natural Gas Demand May Rise 77%
January 20, 2011, 3:40 AM EST

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) — China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, may increase apparent natural gas demand by 77 percent in 2015 from this year as the country steps up use of cleaner- burning fuels to curb carbon emissions.

Consumption may rise to 230 billion cubic meters in 2015 from 130 billion this year, state-controlled China National Petroleum Corp., the country’s largest oil and gas producer, said in a report today. Apparent demand takes into account domestic output and net imports but excludes stockpiles.

Chinese energy companies, including CNPC’s Hong Kong-listed unit PetroChina Co., are boost gas output to meet demand by starting up new domestic fields and acquiring overseas assets. China is also expanding its capacity to receive liquefied natural gas imports on its eastern coast and has started taking delivery of piped gas from Turkmenistan after opening a pipeline that runs through Central Asian countries in 2009.

Domestic gas output may rise about 11 percent this year to 105 billion cubic meters, while imports may exceed 30 billion cubic meters, CNPC said in the report handed out to the media at a briefing in Beijing today.

Piped gas imports may reach 15 billion cubic meters and LNG imports may be more than 12 million metric tons, according to the report.

CNPC plans to “intensify” purchases of global oil and gas assets in the five years through 2015, the company said in a statement on its website today. PetroChina made $6.9 billion of acquisitions in countries from Australia to Singapore in the past two years and has said it plans to spend at least $60 billion to buy assets this decade.

Shale Gas

China is boosting the use of cleaner-burning fuels, including unconventional gas, to help meet a goal to cut carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by as much as 45 percent of 2005 levels by 2020. Gas trapped in shale, coal seams and impermeable sandstone, is collectively known as unconventional gas.

CNPC and Statoil ASA have started preliminary exploration for shale gas in China, and aim to produce a total of 500 million cubic meters (17.6 billion cubic feet) of the resource by 2015, according to presentation materials handed out to the media at the briefing.

The country’s unconventional gas output will total 12 billion cubic feet a day by 2030, Gavin Thompson, director of China gas research at consultant Wood Mackenzie, said on Nov. 25. Shale gas output will reach 8 billion cubic feet a day by then, he said.

–Wang Ying, Chua Baizhen. Editors: Ryan Woo, Jane Lee.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at ywang30@bloomberg.net; Baizhen Chua in Beijing at bchua14@bloomberg.net