China’s growing natural gas demand has captured the interest of BP Plc. With the natural gas news in China indicting a strong growth the London based corporation is set to sign a $20 billion liquefied natural gas deal with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.
China has become a mammoth opportunity for energy suppliers rising to meet the demand caused by the counties rapidly expanding industrial complexes and a public eager to enjoy the benefits of new technology. From fossil fuels to renewable solar power the country is constantly in need of yet more choices in greater amounts.
The world has taken notice of the rapid increase in China’s demands with the International Energy Agency predicting the country’s already high demand will double again by 2019. In areas of transport and industry sectors, China is expected to see an increase of over 90%.
Some of the needs will be met by domestic sources, but it’s also predictable that these sources will not be able to sustain the needs of both the public and industrial sectors. Stock investments are favoring those companies with inroads into supplying the country’s latest growth spurt.
BP despite having a few hiccups with internal management, and public relation issues after the disastrous Deepwater Horizon spill is a logical choice to come into China’s power market at this time. The company is one of the world’s largest and leading oil and gas supplies operating on a global scale. Operating as an innovative and vertically integrated oil and gas business it’s capable of both production and refining.
China is not the only country, expanding in energy needs, but it is leaping ahead of the rest of the world. The U.S. The Energy Information Administration believes the global natural gas need will increase by 64%. This moves the use from 113 trillion cubic feet only four years ago to 185 trillion cubic feet by 2040. This is in part due to the move to electricity and other power sources for transportation and industrial power operation, which have a much lower use of carbon intensity compared to other sources such as coal.
In the last few years, many governments are more inclined to opt for sources that produce less carbon in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For this reason it’s predicted by the EIA that 77% of the projected increase in worldwide natural gas consumption will come from government, utilities sectors and industries hoping to meet new guidelines on emissions.
Since Asia-Pacific regions are in a high growth stage in modernizing for public and industrial needs in this area will need to energize its own use, and export their own supplies. Trade in this area seems likely to jump as these countries hold one-fifth of the total natural gas consumption worldwide. Whereas the demand has been from Japan and South Korea, the growth is now expected to come primarily from China.
China is working toward shale drilling to drive down the cost of natural gas in the country, but as the demand will soon outstrip this resource its likely to come to rely heavily on imports.
