MOSCOW (MRC) -- The tight supply situation of natural gas in the global markets is expected to ease to a certain extent in 2022 as production growth is forecast to outpace demand, reported S&P Global with reference to a a statement of Luo Yizhou, vice president of PetroChina International Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of state-owned PetroChina.
"With the normalization of COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control measures, the continuous recovery of the world economy, and the stabilization of international oil prices, global natural gas demand is estimated to grow to around 4.070 trillion cu m in 2022, up 2.3% year on year," Luo said at the 10th China International Oil and Gas Trade Congress in Shanghai Nov. 8.
"On the other hand, global natural gas production is expected to be 4.12 trillion cu m in 2022, up 4% year on year," he said, expecting the tight gas supply to ease based on that scenario.
The tight supply has pushed up global gas prices in 2021, with the benchmark JKM, TTF and NBP all rising to historical highs in the September-October period.
"Supply has not been able to keep up with the rebound in demand post pandemic," said Chris Midgley, global head of analytics with S&P Global Platts, at the conference. This was the main reason that caused the tight natural gas supply situation this year, Midgley said.
Global demand for natural gas is expected to grow steadily in the next few decades due to accelerated actions against climate change.
"About 50% of the incremental global natural gas demand will come from Asia by 2035, with China and India as the main engines to boost the development of the LNG market," Luo said.
"Natural gas will play a very important role in the energy transition. We expect the global natural gas demand to grow to around 6.1 trillion cu m in 2050 while China's natural gas consumption will be around 670 billion cu m in the same year," he said, and adding that China's natural gas demand is expected to peak in 2040.
PetroChina targets reaching peak carbon by 2025, and the company is scheduled to have a changeover to renewable energy by 2035 and a near-zero emissions and green transformation by 2050, according to Luo.
China's peak carbon and carbon-neutrality targets of 2030 and 2060, respectively, have promoted the development of new trading categories, such as carbon emissions trading. PetroChina will monitor the progress of domestic carbon futures, and participate in their trading to help its subsidiaries lower the cost of compliance, Luo added.
As MRC informed previously, PetroChina, Asia's largest oil and gas producer,aims to have oil, gas and green energies to each account for a third of its portfolio by 2035, as the Chinese oil major shifts toward a lower-carbon future.
We remind that in August, 2021, PetroChina Liaoyang Petrochemical Co Ltd , part of the Chinese petrochemical major - PetroChina,successfully started up its new polypropylene (PP) plant last week. Based in Liaoning City, Liaoyang Province, China, the new PP plant has a production capacity of 300,000 tons/year.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China's biggest oil producer.
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