China has urged its big three energy producers to boost gas imports and output after an ongoing shortfall during an unusually early cold snap forced many cities to cut off supply to businesses.

China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), Sinopec, and China National
Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) have been called on to “actively arrange
imports to increase natural gas supply”. The National Development and
Reform Commission (NDRC), the top economic planning agency, also said
they must “continue the heavy-load production and exploit (output)
potential by every possible means”. Northern, southwestern and eastern
regions of China were struck by a supply crunch as low temperatures,
rain and snow storms began to sweep swathes of the country from early
November, the NDRC said. Northern parts of the country saw demand rise
as much as 56 percent this month from a year ago, while in Hunan and
Hubei provinces consumption surged 22 percent. Among the worst-hit
cities, Wuhan in central China stopped supplying gas to 56 industrial
and commercial users 11 days ago and refilling of the city’s 8,300
gas-powered taxis resumed Wednesday after being cut for nine days.
Other cities including Hangzhou and Nanjing in the east and Chongqing
in the southwest have limited or suspended supply to factories and
entertainment venues to ensure household heating and cooking needs are
met, state media reported. The gas shortage has fuelled public anger
over the monopoly of state-owned producers, accusing them of being
reluctant to increase output in an attempt to jack up prices, the
reports said. To meet demand in the east and southeast, CNPC will
import at least 700 million cubic metres (24.5 billion cubic feet) of
liquefied natural gas from the spot market, the firm and government
officials have said. This was the first time it had imported the gas,
the reports added. CNPC, the country’s biggest oil and gas producer,
has said northern China was facing a supply shortage of eight million
cubic metres per day and the south up to six million cubic metres
daily, according to the reports. The shortfall will be “hard to
alleviate” in the near term even though gas output jumped by eight
percent in the first 10 months of the year, the NDRC statement said.

Source: AFP

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