PetroChina buys short-term pipeline gas from Central Asia to boost winter supply

PetroChina has signed an agreement with an unidentified oil and gas company in Central Asia to buy a batch of natural gas for delivery over October-March via the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline, the state-owned oil and gas major said in a statement Oct. 12.

The deal will partly alleviate the tight domestic natural gas supply ahead of the peak winter demand, diversify imported pipeline gas resources, as well as improve energy security, PetroChina said.

The company did not disclose the names of the seller, traded volume, and pricing formula.

China's state-owned gas suppliers, including PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC, have been shoring up gas supply for the upcoming 2021-2022 winter-spring heating season, to prevent a supply shortage during the 2022 Winter Olympics scheduled over Feb. 4-20 in Beijing.

The country's robust demand for natural gas in 2021 has pushed PetroChina to boost pipeline gas imports, the company said, adding that its imports surged by about 25% year over year, or 8.7 billion cubic meters, over January-September.

PetroChina will also increase natural gas imports from Russia via the Power of Siberia pipeline to 43 million cu m/d by end-2021, from the current 28 Mcm/day, to help meet demand during the Winter Olympics, S&P Global Platts reported earlier.

The company has injected more than 2.014 billion cu m of natural gas at its Dagang oilfield gas storage group, a major gas storage and peak shaving base in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, to ensure adequate winter supply, the company said Oct. 9, noting that it plans to complete gas injection at all its gas storage bases by end-October.

PetroChina plans to inject more than 10 Bcm of natural gas into 10 storage bases in 2021, according to targets revealed earlier this year.

PetroChina has also launched the Tangshan and Jiangsu LNG terminal phase 3 projects over the past two months, adding LNG storage capacity and nameplate receiving capacity by 1.04 million cu m and 7 million mt/year, respectively.

Meanwhile, Sinopec plans to secure around 13.3 Bcm of imported LNG, according to a report posted on the company's official website Oct. 8.

The company has injected 1.17 Bcm of natural gas at its pipeline network and LNG storages as of end-September and plans to have an effective gas working volume of 1.69 Bcm as of end-October, it said.

Sinopec has also accelerated the construction of its Tianjin phase 2 project. The company is expected to put into operation two newly built LNG storage tanks, 220,000 cu m, each, and a new dock capable of receiving 266,000 cu m LNG carriers, by the end of November, it said.