China Says Gas Output May More Than Triple by 2030

By Wang Ying

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- China said annual natural gas output may more than triple to 250 billion cubic meters by 2030 as the world's second-biggest energy consumer intensifies petroleum exploration to meet its fuel needs.

Oil production may remain at 200 million metric tons a year by 2030, the Ministry of Land and Resources said in a statement on its Web site. China has recoverable oil reserves of 21.2 billion tons and gas deposits of 22 trillion cubic meters, the ministry said.

Chinese oil and gas companies are boosting their output capacities to benefit from the world's fastest-growing major economy, which expanded by 10.1 percent in the second quarter. Oil demand may increase 5.7 percent next year, the International Energy Agency said in a report on Aug. 12.

``The assessment shows China's oil production will grow stably while natural gas output increase will be at a faster pace,'' the ministry said in the statement yesterday.

Gas output rose 23 percent to 69.3 billion cubic meters in 2007, the official Xinhua News Agency reported in February, citing the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the nation's second- biggest oil and gas producer, will step up investment in Sichuan to drill an additional 20 gas wells and boost supplies of the fuel to areas in the southwestern province hit by a 7.9- magnitude earthquake in May, China Petrochemical Corp. said in its newsletter.

Sichuan Fields

Daily gas output at Sichuan fields owned by Sinopec, as China Petroleum is known, will increase by between 200,000 and 250,000 cubic meters by the end of this year, its parent said in the newsletter today.

``Sichuan's natural gas demand growth has far outpaced increases in production, which may lead to a gas shortage during the winter,'' Xu Xiangrong, general manager of Sinopec's southwestern unit, was quoted as saying. ``Sinopec will boost its capacity to ensure winter supplies.''

The Sinopec unit may boost gas output to more than 2.7 billion cubic meters this year, the report said, without giving a comparative number.

China has recoverable coal-bed methane reserves of 11 trillion cubic meters, oil shale reserves of 12 billion tons and oil sands reserves of 2.3 billion tons, the land and resources ministry said.

``The nation has good prospects of oil-shale and coal-bed methane resources, which will be an important supplement to the conventional oil and gas reserves,'' according to the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wang Ying in Beijing at wang30@bloomberg.net;