LNG price soars but is expected to even out in future

World
Europe

Every day, the priority for Liu Xiaobin is to find a source of natural gas and ensure a steady supply for over a million households in Shijiazhang, the capital of Hebei, the province neighboring Beijing.

Since late November, the city has been experiencing a shortage of natural gas. However, as Liu puts it, the worst is over for now.

By December 6, the gap had been plugged, and Liu told CGTN that the supply of natural gas for heating and cooking in both cities and rural areas is “not affected.”

In order to improve air quality, China is replacing coal with natural gas to provide heat in rural areas. About 2.3 million households in 2017 have been remodeled with gas pipelines, nearly 20 percent ahead of the annual goal, says Hebei's Construction Committee.

Many residences have been remodeled with LNG pipelines. / CGTN photo

According to China's 13th five-year plan, by 2020, 470 million people will be using natural gas. And to make that happen, new measures have been implemented to deal with supply and demand levels.

To cope with the rising demand, local natural gas suppliers are working with the government to increase supply, including using liquid natural gas (LNG) and building more storage facilities.

The market is also witnessing soaring prices of LNG. However, as experts taking part in the clean air conference in Beijing Thursday pointed out, most LNG contracts are long-term and the price is fixed.

A taxi filling up on natural gas, a cleaner fuel alternative. / CGTN Photo.‍

Jiang Kejuan, a researcher at the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, thinks LNG is overpriced. “The price of LNG depends on global natural gas supply and my understanding is that the natural gas demand in Europe and even in the US is going down,” he said.

As the supply of natural gas is expected to expand, he believes this will make the price much lower “even for China’s market” in the future.

Only a year ago, natural gas was still facing overcapacity issues. Jiang believes that the shortage is temporary, as is the soaring price of LNG.