China Pollution Cuts Raise Prospect of Gas Import BoomQBy Ryan...

China Pollution Cuts Raise Prospect of Gas Import Boom


QBy Ryan Woo - Dec 13, 2011 8:09 AM CT
Trailing Gas Demand Signals China Import Boom Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty


China’s ranking as the biggest energy consumer and the least reliant on natural gas for power generation among the world’s leading economies is raising the prospect of an import boom as it seeks to cut pollution.

Demand in China may more than triple this decade, with consumption for electricity generation increasing more than fourfold, according to the International Energy Agency. Gas currently accounts for less than 1 percent of the nation’s power generation, compared with 23 percent in the U.S., the only country with a larger economy, and 48 percent in Russia, according to Bloomberg rankings based on World Bank data.

Efforts to cut reliance on coal, which produces about twice as much pollution as gas, are raising prospects for cleaner- burning fuels in China, fanning investments in gas-export terminals from Canada to Australia. China, the world’s fastest- growing major economy, creates more of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming than any other nation. It agreed along with India two days ago to negotiate the first-ever limits to fossil-fuel emissions.

“Gas use in China is really set to take off as they take environmental benefits into account,” Helen Lau, a Hong Kong- based analyst at UOB-Kay Hian Ltd., said in an interview. “China is well aware that without gas there will be no sustainable growth.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-13/china-natural-gas-demand-to-surge-as-cleaner-fuel-prized-energy-markets.html