Status quo and prospect analysis on LNG industry in China

Up till now,there are two LNG receiving stations put into production,another thirteen stations are being under construction or proposed with a total LNG capacity of 36.3 million tons at the first-phase construction and 33.10 million tons at the second-phase construction. Based on statistical data,this paper shows that there are seven complete sets of technology introduced from other countries and nineteen domestic sets of technology with the daily treatment of natural gas up to 7.29 million cubic meters of natural gas in total in all those small-scale LNG plants. Chinese LNG industry is developing rapidly in recent years especially at coastal port cities where there are good conditions to import the LNG on a large scale. Obvious advantages in those coastal port cities are shown as follows:a high demand for gas energy and affordability of the energy price due to their economic growth; complete infrastructure in the fields of urban gas grid,chemical production,and power generation,etc.; the imported LNG convenient to be loaded and unloaded. However,since the prevailing LNG seller's market will be keeping its way till 2010 or so,those LNG projects in the coastal cities,especially for those which planned to put into production by 2010 and is getting into trouble in finding the LNG sources to import; the uncertainty is increasing for those LNG projects because not only the global crude oil price but also the construction materials like cement or steels (9% Ni steel in particular) are all fluctuating drastically. Through analysis on challenges and opportunities for the LNG development in China,this paper put forward advices as follows:a. overall planning of the LNG projects should be made adaptable for all parts of China; b. the LNG source should go first before market-oriented decisions are made; c. LNG projects should be positioned at right places according to their different purposes for LNG; d. all LNG projects should be programmed as a whole in accordance with market rules; e. the LNG reserves should be expanded by various means of imports from abroad.