Natural gas pipeline to boost stocks

CNPC confident of catering to busy season demand for clean fuel in winter

The China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline will transport 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas by November, equivalent to the total annual natural gas consumption of China or 11 years' of natural gas supply for Beijing, China National Petroleum Corp, the country's largest oil and gas supplier and producer, said on Friday.

The pipeline, which has been in operation since December 2009, runs through China, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The gas supply from the Central Asian countries has played a significant role in ensuring natural gas supplies during the heating season in northern China, when demand rises to nearly three times that of non-heating seasons.

Qu Guangxue, a CNPC spokesperson, said that CNPC, which accounts for over 70 percent of the natural gas supplied in China, expects natural gas demand to reach 81.3 billion cu m this year for the company, up 11.7 percent from the same period a year ago.

"The company is committed to ensuring adequate domestic natural gas supplies even as it continues negotiations with other Central Asian nations for additional stocks," said Qu.

According to Qu, natural gas demand has witnessed a slight surge this year, with sales of the clean energy witnessing a more than 20 percent year-on-year growth.

Analysts said the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline has well ensured China's natural gas demand and diversified the nation's sources of natural gas imports.

Li Li, an energy research director at ICIS China, said natural gas has become China's fastest-growing fuel in recent years and the stable supplies and relatively well-developed infrastructure have helped boost growth.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, China's natural gas supplies will exceed 360 billion cu m by 2020, and will account for 10 percent of China's energy production by then compared with the current 7 percent.

Output of natural gas rose from 50 billion cu m in 2005 to 135 billion cu m in 2016.

To meet the rapid growth in demand, the commission has vowed to strengthen its pipeline network during the next decade.

The country's oil and gas pipeline network is expected to reach 240,000 kilometers by 2025 from the current 112,000 kilometers, which means the country will need to build another 128,000 kilometers of pipeline in the next few years, it said.

Wang Lu, an Asia-Pacific oil and gas analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said growth in pipeline length and total transmission capacity will help China raise the share of gas in the primary energy consumption mix.