PetroChina Plans Underground Storage Facilities: Report
PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gas Field Company, a unit of state-owned PetroChina, will build two underground gas storage facilities in Chongqing municipality by year-end, Xinhua news agency reported May 30.
The two facilities, in Tongluoxia and Huangcaoxia, will cost yuan 5.3bn ($830mn) to build and will be ready by 2022. They will supply 1.28bn m3/yr of gas to these areas. Chongqing has stable geological structure and makes an ideal location to store gas underground, Xinhua quoted Wen Ming, assistant general manager of PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gas Field Company, saying. At present China has 25 underground storage facilities.
China plans to build more underground storage facilities to cater to winter demand. Consumption of natural gas in China has been very strong since early last year which has prompted explorers to increase output. China’s natural gas production during April was 12.9bn m3, up 6.3% year on year, according to statistics bureau data released May 15. During January-April, production was 52.63bn m3, a year on year increase of 4%.
CNPC, China’s biggest energy company and PetroChina’s parent firm, has pumped more gas into the storage system as well. In April, the amount of gas in storage reached 1.49bn m3, an increase of 32.6% compared with same period last year. The company expects to supply 10% more gas from the storage system during the winters season.