PetroChina's 2018 Gas Sales Up 13%
State-owned PetroChina’s natural gas sales in 2018 stood at 170bn m3, up 13.3% year-on-year, its parent company, CNPC, said March 5.
China’s gas consumption has been trending higher since early 2017 owing to government aggressive implementation of coal to gas switching programme, especially in the northern part of the country.
Last year, Asia’s biggest economy consumed 280.3bn m3 of natural gas, up 18.1% year-on-year, according to data published December 31 by the state planning agency, the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC).
Since production last year, at 161bn m3, was well below consumption, the deficit was met by imported gas. China’s natural gas imports in 2018 saw a sharp 31.9% year-on-year growth. According to Chinese customs department data published January 14, the country imported 90.38mn metric tons of natural gas (pipeline and LNG) last year.
China’s LNG imports last year were at record levels. According to customs data released January 23, the country imported 53.78mn metric tons of LNG last year, up 41.2% on 2017.