China's annual gas demand is expected to rise to 350 billion cubic meters (33.8 Bcf/d) by 2020 and 550 Bcm by 2030 from 130 Bcm in 2011, a top official with state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation said Thursday.
Speaking at the World Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Zhou Jiping, CNPC's president, said that China may surpass Russia to become the world's second largest gas consumer by 2030.
China is currently the world's fourth largest gas consumer after the US, Russia and Iran, he said.
"China's gas sector is well positioned for rapid growth, our current per capita gas consumption is far below the world average which does not match our pace of social and economic development," Zhou said.
Talking about China's domestic gas potential, Zhou said that China had a total 80 trillion cu m of technically recoverable gas reserves.
This includes conventional gas (32 Tcm), shale gas (25.10 Tcm), tight gas (12 Tcm) and coalbed methane (10.9 Tcm).
China is quite rich in gas resources and will mainly rely on domestic production to improve supply security, Zhou said.
He added that as of end 2011, China's ratio of proven resources of conventional gas to technically recoverable resources was just 16%, "which is quite a low degree of exploration.
"China's output increase can basically catch up with our demand growth and will provide the bulk of our gas demand over the coming decade," he said. For the next 20 years, China's gas production will witness rapid growth and the country's annual gas production capacity is expected to surpass 200 Bcm and 300 Bcm in 2020 and 2030 respectively, he said.
CNPC, meanwhile, is aiming to raise its annual domestic gas production to 120 Bcm by 2015 and 150 Bcm by 2020, he said. CNPC's domestic gas output stood at 75.62 Bcm in 2011.
"In the near term, CNPC will still prioritize conventional gas production and development to maintain a steady growth of reserves and production," he said, but added that his company also placed great importance on unconventional gas.
"We are exploring and developing shale gas and tight gas," he said. On shale gas, Zhou said China must develop its own low cost solution to developing its large share of deposits on a large scale as the country's more complex shale geology means it cannot simply apply the techniques used by US producers.
"We must develop our own applicable technologies and approach, blaze a new trail of economic, efficient and clean development of shale gas," he said.
