CNPC to Supply 8 Bcm/y to Beijing by Year End

China National Petroleum Corp.'s (CNPC) natural gas supply to Beijing will reach eight billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) by the end of the year, a source with Beijing Gas Group Co. Ltd., the capital's leading gas distributor, confirmed to Interfax on Wednesday.

The figure is nearly 10 percent higher than the 7.3 bcm/y that CNPC pumped to Beijing last year, according to a source with Beijing Gas Group, who wished to remain anonymous.

With more than 20 million residents, Beijing ranked as the largest gas consumer among Chinese cities in 2011, Zhu Wenchao, an analyst with Zhuochuang Information, told Interfax on Wednesday. The capital's gas sales increased by 15.5 percent year-on-year to 4.78 bcm in the first seven months, with sales in July rising 7.8 percent to 330 million cubic meters, according to figures released on Wednesday by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

Beijing consumed 5.8 bcm of gas during a four-month period beginning on November 15, 2012, Interfax previously reported.

The capital is supplied by CNPC's Shaan-Jing Gas Pipeline (SJP) network, which comprises of three trunk lines, the first of which went onstream 15 years ago.

SJP mainly sources gas from CNPC's Changqing Oilfield in Shaanxi Province. The network also transmits gas from the Tarim Oilfield in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Central Asia, after CNPC linked it to its first and second west-east gas pipelines in 2006 and 2010, respectively.

SJP has sent 50.6 bcm of gas to Beijing to date, the state-run Beijing Youth Daily reported last week. The network's gas supply to the capital displaces nine million tons of coal every year, Beijing Gas Group's Vice Secretary Chi Jingsheng told the Xinhua news agency in August.

In addition to SJP, Beijing also receives gas from the Dagang underground gas storage depot owned and operated by CNPC in Tianjin Municipality. The facility provided 1.1 bcm to north China in the first three months of 2012, the NDRC said in April.

The city is poised to add more gas sources in the coming years. CNPC is planning to build an underground gas storage depot in Wuqi County of Yan'an City in Shaanxi Province to store surplus gas from Beijing during non-peak consumption periods and increase supply in the event of shortfalls. The company is also building a liquefied natural gas import terminal on the coast of Hebei Province, which envelopes Beijing.