China’s natural gas consumption is expected to reach 320 billion cubic metres this year, according to a report compiled by the National Energy Administration.
China’s natural gas consumption is expected to increase by 13 billion cubic metres in 2020. This is mainly due to the country’s efforts to ramp up its exploration and development activities when it comes to natural gas.
The report also revealed that in 2019, China’s natural gas imports increased by 6.9 percent to 135.2 billion cubic metres. However, imports were down in 2020 compared to the previous year.
China’s investments when it comes to oil and gas exploration in 2019 reached $46.9 billion.
According to a three-year action plan on air pollution control released in 2018, China is expected to boost the share of natural gas in its total primary energy consumption to 10 percent by 2020.
The country is also planning to open an oil and gas exploration and development market as well as promote the development of a unified national network, giving full play to the positive role of natural gas in air pollution prevention and control.
China’s import of crude oil in September has also slowed down compared to the previous four months, according to a report by HIS Markit.
Crude oil discharged at Chinese ports in the last two weeks was below 8 million barrels per day, at levels similar to what China imported in March and April, Fotios Katsoulas, an analyst at IHS Markit, said in the report.
During May and June, China increased its import of crude oil as it tried to benefit from the depleting oil price in the global market.