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25-05-2017, 05:18 PM
China, the King of Coal, Is Getting Gassy
Bloomberg News
May 25, 2017, 8:53 AM GMT+8 May 25, 2017, 5:00 PM GMT+8
With factories and power plants across China burning half the world’s coal, the government’s latest targets for using more natural gas to ease the country’s worsening air pollution seemed too ambitious.
Though gas remains a small and expensive component in China’s fuel mix, demand is rising faster than expected for domestic and imported supplies. In April, consumption was 22 percent higher than the same month in 2016, and the total for the first four months of the year is up more than 12 percent, data from the National Development and Reform Commission show.
The results are encouraging analysts to upgrade their demand forecasts and may signal the government is on track to reach its goal of getting as much as 10 percent of its energy from gas by 2020. It’s also bolstering the outlook for hundreds of billions of dollars in possible investments by companies as far away as Russia, Australia and the U.S. to build gas pipelines and export infrastructure to feed the growing Chinese market.
“China’s targets are looking more and more achievable,” said Laban Yu, head of Asia oil and gas equity research at Jefferies Group LLC in Hong Kong. “It has nothing to do with China’s economy, or natural gas and coal prices. It’s policy driven, and it’s about whether the government is serious about doing what it says it will do.”
More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...use-surges
Bloomberg News
May 25, 2017, 8:53 AM GMT+8 May 25, 2017, 5:00 PM GMT+8
With factories and power plants across China burning half the world’s coal, the government’s latest targets for using more natural gas to ease the country’s worsening air pollution seemed too ambitious.
Though gas remains a small and expensive component in China’s fuel mix, demand is rising faster than expected for domestic and imported supplies. In April, consumption was 22 percent higher than the same month in 2016, and the total for the first four months of the year is up more than 12 percent, data from the National Development and Reform Commission show.
The results are encouraging analysts to upgrade their demand forecasts and may signal the government is on track to reach its goal of getting as much as 10 percent of its energy from gas by 2020. It’s also bolstering the outlook for hundreds of billions of dollars in possible investments by companies as far away as Russia, Australia and the U.S. to build gas pipelines and export infrastructure to feed the growing Chinese market.
“China’s targets are looking more and more achievable,” said Laban Yu, head of Asia oil and gas equity research at Jefferies Group LLC in Hong Kong. “It has nothing to do with China’s economy, or natural gas and coal prices. It’s policy driven, and it’s about whether the government is serious about doing what it says it will do.”
More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...use-surges
Specuvestor: Asset - Business - Structure.