China's natural gas consumption is forecast to grow 10.5% from the year prior to 260 billion cubic meters (b cm) in 2018, said Duan Zhaofang, chief engineer of Natural Gas Market Research Institute of Sinopec Economy & Technology Research Institute.
The huge consumption compared with the expected production of 160.6 b cm is likely to raise the country's reliance on gas imports to over 40% this year, said Duan at a summit held over April 24-25.
"High reliance on the overseas market is actually not fearful following a review of natural gas development in the U.S," said Guo Zonghua, director of Shaanxi Gas Design Institute.
Guo highlighted the necessity of strengthening construction of gas storage facilities, parallel build-up of the central government and local gas storage and underground and ground storage.
With the increasing demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG), China saw increased LNG projects this year, with total supply volume at 24.52 million tonnes.
The average ex-plant price of LNG is forecast to fluctuate between 3,500-4,500 yuan/t this year, up by 12% form the average in 2017.
In 2017, China's natural gas output climbed 9.8% year on year to 147.6 b cm, while imports increased 24.7% to 92.8 b cm. That translated to reliance rate of 39.4%.
The global natural gas output is expected to rise 1.6-1.7% on the year to 3.67 trillion cubic meters in 2018, while output may ascend by 1.2-1.3% to 3.68 trillion cubic meters.
The difference between supply and demand will narrow to below 10 b cm this year.
Sources:sxcoal
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