Why winter heating crisis will not stop China’s dash for gas
Analysts do not expect this winter’s shortages to derail the effort to tackle the country’s notorious pollution problems with a cleaner source of fuel
China’s plan to burn less coal and to use more natural gas will only accelerate despite a serious gas supply shortage in this winter, analysts have said.
A renewed push from the Chinese leadership to clean up Beijing’s toxic air drove local cadres across northern China to rush to ban coal this winter , but natural gas shortages left many residents shivering in freezing temperatures.
It even promoted China’s Ministry of Environment to issue an urgent notice telling people to burn coal for heating if necessary.
The shortage of natural gas quickly spread from northern China to more southerly parts of the country as the authorities in Henan, Hubei and Hunan imposed limits on natural gas usage at industrial and chemical plants to ensure there was enough fuel to keep millions of homes warm.
Natural gas price shot up as a result of surging demand. According to China’s national bureau of statistics, the price of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the first 10 days of December reacged 6,967 yuan per tonne (US$1,053) – a 23.6 per cent increase compared with the last 10 days of November.
