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international news

CHINA GAS DENMARK GIVES GREEN LIGHT

DEMAND TO SURGE TO RUSSIA-GERMANY GAS LINK

THROUGH 2035 NORD STREAM 2

CONSTRUCTION OF THE PIPELINE HAS
CONTINUED DESPITE POLITICAL OPPOSITION
GAS STILL FACES STIFF
COMPETITION FROM COAL
DENMARK HAS GRANTED its approval waiting for Copenhagen’s blessing for
CHINA’S NATURAL GAS demand is for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, more than two years. Denmark’s energy
expected to rise by more than 300 removing the last significant hurdle agency said it had approved a 147km
billion cubic metres (bcm) between to the project that has pitted Russia route across the country’s continental
2018 and 2035, or 30 per cent of against the US and divided the EU, shelf, one of three options proposed by
global volume growth. reports The Financial Times. the project.
This has been stoked by the Nord Stream 2, a €9.5 billion link “We will continue the constructive
country’s push to shift to the cleaner to carry gas from Kremlin-controlled co-operation with Danish authorities
fuel from coal, a senior executive of Gazprom to Germany under the Baltic to complete the construction of
PetroChina told Reuters. Sea, is backed by Berlin but has been the pipeline,” said Samira Kiefer
However, despite the huge growth condemned by many EU countries as a Andersson, a Nord Stream 2 official.
potential, natural gas still faces stiff political project that will increase the When fully operational, the pipeline
competition from coal as a fuel for bloc’s reliance on Moscow. will allow Gazprom to reroute European
power generation and heating as Donald Trump has also criticised the gas supplies that currently run
China advances low emission, or pipeline, the US President saying it would through Ukraine, providing critical
so-called ‘clean coal’ technology, said make Germany a hostage to Russia “if transit revenues for Kyiv. That has led
Ling Xiao, Vice President of China’s things ever happen that were bad.” to criticism from Poland and some
top oil and gas producer. The pipeline, which is part-financed Baltic states in particular, who say it is
Meeting part of that demand surge, by five European energy companies, designed to hurt Ukraine. Washington
gas from Russia’s Siberia fields is due is 90 per cent complete but has been has threatened to sanction the project.
to start arriving at the Chinese border
from December. That supply, however,
is more costly than the domestic
wholesale benchmark, meaning US DOUBLES ITS NATURAL GAS EXPORTS
PetroChina as the contractual buyer of
the gas will incur losses in marketing
the fuel, said Ling. net natural gas exports averaged 4.1
“It’s slightly cheaper than central billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d), more
Asian gas but PetroChina will still be than double the average net exports
making a loss as it (the price) exceeds in 2018, data from EIA’s Natural Gas
that of domestic city-gate benchmark Monthly showed.
rates,” Ling told Reuters, speaking The United States, which
on the sidelines of the Singapore exports natural gas via pipelines
International Energy Week. to neighbours Canada and Mexico
Russian gas giant Gazprom will THE US BECAME A NET NATURAL and exports LNG to several other
supply China about 5bcm of gas for GAS EXPORTER IN 2017 countries, became a net natural gas
2020, via the landmark ‘Power of exporter on an annual basis in 2017,
Siberia’ project, but the full ramp- The United States saw its net natural for the first time in nearly 60 years.
up to the designed annual capacity gas exports in the first half of 2019 A large part of the recent increase
of 38bcm will depend on the cost more than double from the same in US natural gas exports is due to
of gas and how affordable that is to period last year, thanks to more LNG a growing number of LNG facilities
Chinese consumers. export capacity coming online in recent coming online. US exports of LNG
China consumed 280bcm of gas months, according to the US Energy jumped by 37 per cent in the first half
last year, making up 7.4 per cent of Information Administration (EIA). of 2019 compared to the first half of
the world’s total demand. Between January and June 2019, 2018, according to EIA data.

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News.indd 6 14/11/2019 16:53