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China gas and power month in brief: LNG and power markets remained hot
*Please note that this report only includes an Excel data file if this is indicated in "What's included" below
Report summary
China's LNG and power markets remained hot in the first two months of 2018, driven by widespread cold snaps and snowfall as well as revived industrial production. The heating season has ended, but the government is pushing harder on new reform initiatives. As gas penetrates higher in the energy mix and demand seasonality tightens supply causing prices to spike, China has cut gas pipeline tariffs in Guangxi and is looking to build more underground gas storage to ease supply tightness in winter. The government is also encouraging development of more distributed generation and incremental distribution grids, to help make the power market more competitive. Trump's trade war could hurt the US-China relationship and affect commodity exports from China, but we expect the impact on US LNG imports should be marginal at this stage.
Table of contents
- Executive summary
-
Markets
- LNG imports remained strong in February
- Power demand grows strongly in first two months
-
Policy
- Distributed generation could see more growth opportunities
- Incremental distribution grid reforms could expand further
- Midstream margin control gathers momentum
- 2018 energy sector guidance sets ambitious gas penetration target
- Trump's trade tirade: what are the implications for US-China LNG co-operation?
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Infrastructure
- PetroChina aims to accelerate gas storage facility build-up
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Smog watch
- As winter restrictions are lifted, AQI follows suit
Tables and charts
This report includes the following images and tables:
- Monthly gas demand, bcm
- Monthly LNG imports, Mt
- Monthly power demand, Twh
- Provincial pipeline tariff-setting metrics
- Estimated start-up time and total capacity for China's underground gas storage facilities in place
- Beijing AQI
What's included
This report contains:
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