Not To Rely On A Single Supplier

LNG is the first natural gas importing project for a giant economy that is growing at 7 per cent a year. China – highly industrializes country - depends on polluting coal combustion for 70 per cent. This energy project will allow the country reduce this figure to 1 or 2 per cent. The plan is to increase the natural gas component substantially, starting in Guangdong province, where 10 per cent of energy needs should be met by natural gas by 2010. For the past decade Guangdong's eight cities, with a population of 40 million, have attracted about one-third of China's foreign direct investment and produced about a third of its exports, a recent survey found. Shell and Exxon Mobil have just won production rights in gas fields in China's west as part of an agreement to build a 4000km east-west pipeline with China's biggest oil producer, PetroChina. But Guangdong's Pearl River Delta is too far away from the Xinjiang province gasfields to make local supply an option. But the volume of works is to high even for such giants. The Shekou gas plant in Shenzhen is scheduled to come on stream in 2005. A second LNG plant is already planned for Fujian, and more plants are expected, probably in China's northwest. ©

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