The National Energy Board Will Strengthen Natural Gas Reserves To Build A Large Number Of Projects.

In May 18th, Liu Heming, deputy director of the Urban Construction Department of the Ministry of housing and urban rural development, revealed in the "three session of the six session of the China Association of city gas" that the national energy board is carrying out a study on major projects of LNG (liquefied natural gas) and underground gas storage of natural gas, and a large number of large gas storage projects are about to start construction.

Liu Heming said: "at present, natural gas in most cities in the country is still a single gas source and a single pipeline. The occurrence of gas supply crisis endangering the safety of urban gas supply has occurred frequently, and the urban gas supply mechanism has not yet been fully established.

Therefore, we should improve the gas supply mechanism from the height of ensuring urban energy security and public safety.

Liu Heming said that the design of natural gas reserve should be considered from three aspects: first, the increasing dependence on domestic natural gas; the establishment of a national strategic reserve for natural gas; two, the establishment of urban emergency reserves; and three, peak shaving and gas storage to meet daily supply needs.

Gas storage: scarce peak shaving facilities

The huge peak valley gap challenges the balance of supply and demand of natural gas in cities.

The gas industry expert analysis shows that the ratio of peak and valley difference of natural gas in China is more than 3, and the peak and valley difference in Beijing and other big cities is even 10.

In the winter peak of Beijing, natural gas consumption exceeds 50 million cubic meters per day, while the summer trough consumption is less than 4 million cubic meters / day.

The huge consumption gap threatens the stability of the city gas supply system.

Generally speaking, natural gas peak shaving can be regulated through two aspects: supply and demand.

Supply side peak shaving means include underground gas storage, reserve capacity of gas field, optimal operation of LNG receiving station, etc. demand side peak shaving means include interruptible dual fuel industrial users, gas power generation enterprises, and price leverage control peak.

"Experience at home and abroad shows that peak shaving investment is the lowest and most economical."

Wang Bin, deputy chief economist of China Petroleum and natural gas pipeline branch, said at a gas conference.

At present, domestic gas storage capacity is far from enough.

According to public information, there are only 6 gas storage units currently invested by China, which is invested by CNPC to ensure the supply of natural gas in Beijing market.

The designed reserve capacity is 3 billion cubic meters, and the peak shaving capacity is only 1 billion 400 million cubic meters, which is only about 2.2% of the total gas volume in the whole year.

The United States has more than 400 underground gas storage, which accounts for 1/3 of the total annual natural gas consumption in the United States. There are more than 60 types of gas storage in Europe, and most of the natural gas reserve rates in most countries reach 15%-25%. These gas storages connect with all kinds of natural gas pipelines to ensure the safety of regional natural gas supply.

Yang Jianhong, deputy director of the oil and Gas Pipeline Project Planning Institute of CNPC, said: "according to the 8%-12% demand of natural gas consumption, the minimum peak shaving capacity in 2010 should be 8 billion cubic meters.

With the development of natural gas application, the demand for peak shaving facilities such as underground gas storage is more urgent. "

This reporter learned from CNPC that PetroChina plans to build 10 gas storage tanks from 2011 to 2015, with a total storage capacity of 22 billion 400 million cubic meters, which is located in the location of the gas source and the consumption center, as well as the surrounding areas of the large-scale backbone network, including Changqing, Liaohe and Chongqing.

After the completion of the above projects, domestic gas storage will account for 8%-10% of the total sales volume of natural gas.

Among them, the storage capacity of Changqing gas storage is 12 billion cubic meters, with a total investment of about 20000000000 Yuan. It is the largest gas storage in China, and is expected to start construction in the next year.

Private enterprises: hope to participate in gas storage construction

Internationally, the construction and operation management of gas storage generally adopt 4 ways. One is the construction and management of underground gas storage by natural gas suppliers; the other is the construction and management of underground gas storage by urban gas distributors; the three is the construction and management of underground gas storage by the independent third party for profit; the four is the construction of underground gas storage by multi-party joint venture. The three is the construction and operation of underground gas storage.

In China, gas storage is the exclusive domain of state-owned enterprises.

The Dagang oil field gas storage is already owned by PetroChina. Sinopec and CNOOC are also doing preliminary work for gas storage, and the final projects have not yet been determined. Foreign capital and private capital have not yet been involved in the construction of gas storage projects.

"Underground gas storage construction costs are high. After completion, some of the natural gas becomes" cushion gas "and can not be used for extraction.

Sinopec exploration expert told reporters.

Nevertheless, private enterprises hope to enter the field of gas storage construction.

The representative of natural gas downstream distribution enterprises, China's Urban Gas Association, has repeatedly recommended that the State encourage social capital to participate in the construction of gas storage.

Recently, the association was commissioned by the State Energy Bureau's oil and gas division to complete the Research Report on promoting the orderly development of China's natural gas industry.

China Gas Association recommends that we should learn from the experience of energy security and improvement of natural gas reserve mechanism in developed countries, and integrate natural gas strategic reserve facilities and natural gas strategic reserve system into national energy planning as soon as possible.

The Association believes that the responsibility of building the gas storage in the main parts of the natural gas industry chain should first be clear, and the investment mechanism for the construction of natural gas peak shaving facilities such as gas storage should be continuously liberalized, so as to encourage competent downstream large enterprises to build urban peak shaving and reserve facilities, and form the daily reserve capacity of the city as a seasonal peak load supplement.

The China Gas Association suggests that the upstream enterprises of natural gas should entrust qualified enterprises to undertake the construction and operation of the natural gas reserve facilities at the specific operational level; the downstream gas distribution enterprises should undertake the construction and operation of the natural gas reserve facilities in the city's daily peak load regulation, and local governments may require distribution enterprises to establish natural gas reserves and be responsible for the peak daily natural gas production in the city.

Upstream production enterprises and downstream enterprises of natural gas should also establish corresponding seasonal peak shaving and peak shaving warning mechanism, predict the corresponding natural gas demand changes in downstream market or local area, and design peak shaving schemes for natural gas supply.