China's ever-growing demand for energy to fire up its burgeoning industries has once again pushed the country to once again boost its purchases of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for this year even with the looming effects of the trade war it is currently waging with the United States.
The Asian nation's thirst for LNG is now touted to peak around between 20 to 25 percent in 2018, Mohammed al-Sada of the Qatari Energy Ministry said on Thursday and as cited over at Reuters.
According to the news outlet, China's purchasing rate will overtake that of South Korea's which was once the world's largest importer of LNG back in 2017.
The Qatari minister reiterated that the strong demand for LNG, which saw an upsurge of 46 percent last year, will continue to trudge on upwards by 25 percent or even more. This statement from al-Sada, which was given during the bilateral investment conference held in Berlin on Friday between Qatar and Germany, clearly indicated that the estimates could still reach a higher figure.
According to the report, China has just become one of the new big consumers of LNG in the world following the move from the Xi Jinping administration to reduce its consumption of coal. This is part of the government's continuing efforts to improve the air quality not only within its highly-urbanized cities but throughout the whole country as well.
A previous report from this site mentioned that it is one of President Xi Jinping's campaign to "bring back the blue skies" in China.
Domestic Supply
In line with the government's initiative to increase its supply of LNG in the country, reports indicated several firms committing to the clean fuel drive.
According to Nikkei, gas company, Exxon Mobil has pledged to invest for a chemical complex and LNG terminal that will soon rise in Guangdong Province.
Exxon's chief executive Darren Woods met with China's high-ranking energy officials to put into the paper the agreement made between the energy company and the local government of Guangdong.
As specified in the framework of the agreement, Exxon Mobil will build a petrochemical plant in the city of Huizhou. Upon its completion in 2023, the energy complex is expected to produce more than a million tons of ethylene per year. The chemical compound is one of the basic raw materials used to process LNG.
A report from E&P Mag also mentioned state-owned oil and gas firm Sinopec putting in place various measures to boost the country's LNG supply. As pointed out by the media outlet, the gas major will look to increase the size of its LNG cargoes while scaling up its distribution.
