Chemical News

China's December gas pipeline imports hit record high 3.41 Bcm

https://www.chemnet.com Jan 27,2015 Platts

China imported a record high 2.47 million mt of natural gas via pipelines in December, up 33.4% year-on-year and 39.8% on the month, data released late Saturday by the country's General Administration of Customs showed.

The customs department reports natural gas trade data in metric tons, similar to LNG imports.

December's pipeline imports equate to about 3.41 Bcm.

China's gas pipeline imports from Turkmenistan last month soared 26.5% year-on-year to 1.89 million mt, the highest to date, bringing total imports from Turkmenistan in 2014 to 18.74 million mt.

While this was a 5.8% rise from 2013, it was less than the 30 Bcm/year agreed between state-owned companies Turkmengaz and China National Petroleum Corp. in a sales and purchase deal struck in 2007.

The two companies have since then agreed to boost China's imports of Turkmen gas to 40 Bcm/year by this year and 65 Bcm/year by 2020.

China's overall gas pipeline imports last year rose 14.7% from 2013 to 23.02 million mt, buoyed also by an exponential increase from Myanmar.

The average delivered price of pipeline imports was $9.70/MMBtu last year, according to customs data, up from $9.45/MMBtu in 2013.

Gas imports from Myanmar were the costliest at $11.56/MMBtu, while Turkmen volumes cost an average $9.69/MMBtu last year.

APPARENT DEMAND

Taking into account LNG imports, which tumbled 17.2% on the year in December to 2.02 million mt, China's total gas imports in the month were 4.49 million mt, up 4.7% year-on-year.

Gas exports to Hong Kong and Macau totaled 0.12 Bcm in December, while domestic production rose rose 8.9% to 12.15 Bcm, according to data released earlier by the National Bureau of Statistics.

This means mainland China's apparent gas demand in December -- domestic production plus net imports -- in December was 18.22 Bcm, up 10.4% on the year and 15.6% on the month, according to Platts calculations.

China is in peak gas demand season as heating cranks up in winter.

Last year, China's LNG imports were 10.3% higher than a year earlier at 19.89 million mt, bringing total gas and LNG imports to 42.91 million mt, or 59.22 Bcm, a 12.6% jump on the year.

Adding domestic production of 123.41 Bcm and discounting exports of 2.61 Bcm, China's total apparent demand for gas last year rose 8.9% to 180.02 Bcm, according to Platts calculations.

Growth has slowed from 2013, when apparent gas demand expanded 17.1%.

Analysts believe China's gas demand growth will likely slow to under 10%, largely because of massive increases in non-residential gas prices in the last two years.

China's Dec natural gas pipeline imports
Source	Dec 2014	Dec 2013	Change (%)	Nov 2014	Change (%)
Turkmenistan	1,888,746	1,492,786	+26.5	1,357,464	+39.1
Uzbekistan	139,226	228,391	-39.0	162,218	-14.2
Myanmar	417,255	102,422	+307.4	221,981	+88.0
Kazakhstan	24,840	27,873	-10.9	25,319	-1.9
Total	2,470,066	-1,851,472	+33.4	1,766,982	+39.8

China's Jan-Dec natural gas pipeline imports
Source	2014	2013	Change (%)
Turkmenistan	18,743,440	17,709,768	+5.8
Uzbekistan	2,200,880	154,558	+1,324
Myanmar	1,787,321	2,097,341	-14.8
Kazakhstan	291,403	112,594	+158.8
Total	23,023,044	20,074,262	+14.7

Unit: mt unless otherwise stated
Source: China's General Administration of Customs

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