China's 2019 Gas Output Jumps 10%
Chinese natural gas output in 2019 stood at 173.6bn m3, up 9.8% on the previous year, data released on January 17 by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
In December, production was 16bn m3, up 7.5% on the same month of last year, the data showed. Compared with November, when China produced 15.1bn m3 of natural gas, production was up 6%.
Although the rate of gas demand growth has decelerated in China owing to a slowing economy, state-owned producers are eager as ever to ramp up production to replace imports. The growth rate is expected to slip to 10% in 2019 from 18.1% in 2018 and 15.3% in 2017, according to a recent forecast from Sinopec Gas Co., a subsidiary of state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec).