"Gas shortage" frequently commercial reserves can alleviate the natural gas shortage?

The imbalance in primary energy consumption, rising dependence on oil imports, and high-intensity carbon emissions have become obstacles to the sustainable development of China's economy. It is imperative to adjust the energy structure and vigorously develop renewable energy.

As a clean and efficient energy source, the consumption of natural gas has seen an explosive growth in recent years, but the “gas shortage” has been frequent.

Policy increase

In recent years, the supply of natural gas in China has continued to grow. Under the pressure of global climate change and the development of a low-carbon economy, the consumption of natural gas has seen explosive growth in recent years.

According to the China New Energy Channel, the per capita natural gas consumption in China in 2010 was 88 cubic meters, 2.4 times that of 2005. In the first half of 2011, natural gas consumption reached 63.1 billion cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 21%. With the expansion of demand, the "gas shortage" also followed.

In order to increase energy efficiency, promote structural adjustment, save energy and reduce emissions, and promote the orderly development of distributed natural gas, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Housing, and the Ministry of Energy and Energy issued a joint “Guide to the development of distributed natural gas” on October 13th. The "Opinions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions") have raised the comprehensive development and utilization of natural gas distributed energy systems to the national strategic level and "combined the use of renewable energy such as solar energy, wind energy, and ground-source heat pumps in areas where conditions permit" for comprehensive utilization.

According to the “Guiding Opinions”, about 1,000 natural gas distributed energy projects will be built during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, and about 10 typical distributed energy demonstration areas of various typical characteristics will be built. By 2020 or so, China's natural gas distributed energy system will have a total installed capacity of 50 million kilowatts.

At the same time, China's shale gas development policy will soon be introduced. According to sources from the Oil and Gas Strategic Research Center of the Ministry of Land and Resources, the development of shale gas in China has been included in the National Twelfth Five-Year Plan. The relevant departments are currently working on a "shale gas development plan."

It is reported that China will establish 20 key shale gas exploration and development zones and submit reserves to form production capacity.

Introducing commercial reserves

How can we alleviate the gas shortage? At the 2nd China International Gas Energy Summit and the International Summit Forum on Bio-gas Industry held recently, industry experts, scholars, and enterprises exchanged and communicated on this issue.

In addition to improving the natural gas price mechanism, many experts believe that it is necessary to vigorously develop unconventional natural gas resources and at the same time use commercial reserves as the main body for building natural gas reserves.

Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China Energy Network, said that unconventional natural gas is likely to change our future life and has a great impact on China's energy structure.

Han Xiaoping said: "In the future, China's dependence on natural gas will be close to 50%. However, the degree of dependence on natural gas will not increase rapidly, but will decrease, due to the development of unconventional natural gas such as shale gas." Han Xiaoping stressed that unconventional natural gas Resources and conventional natural gas resources are not the same. Taking shale gas and coalbed methane as examples, they are found everywhere in the country and their reserves are very large. "If unconventional natural gas resources can be fully utilized, it can completely make up for the unfavorable situation in which China's natural gas is now increasingly dependent on foreign countries."

Chen Shouhai, associate professor of the School of Business Administration of China University of Petroleum, believes that one solution to the “gas shortage” problem is to establish natural gas reserves.

Chen Shouhai said: “Natural gas reserves should include strategic reserves and peaking reserves. Strategic reserves are used to respond to short-term supply disruptions caused by war, embargoes, and natural disasters. Currently, Italy, France, and Japan have all proposed natural gas strategic reserves. The concept of peaking reserve is used to deal with the peak-to-valley difference in natural gas consumption, including seasonal peaking, daily peaking, hour peaking, and instantaneous peaking. "The reserve of natural gas in appropriate quantities is also a successful experience in mature markets abroad. “Shen Shouhai suggested that commercial reserves should be the main body of natural gas reserves.

He analyzed that the cost of natural gas reserves, including gas storages, tank construction costs, maintenance costs, reserve gas purchase costs and financial costs, etc., are expensive, and it is a heavy burden on both upstream and downstream companies, and companies have no pressure. There is no incentive to establish reserves. Therefore, it is necessary to institutionally enable enterprises to establish the external pressure and internal motivation of natural gas reserves.

The old oil workers who have long been engaged in oil exploration and development have more realistic considerations.

Zhang Kang, deputy director of the Advisory Committee of the Exploration and Development Research Institute of Sinopec, believes that it must take a diversified road of supply and consumption and must develop natural gas according to local conditions.

Zhang Kang said: "Natural gas and petroleum are not the same. It is a highly integrated system for the middle and lower reaches of the river. There must be no problems in any one of the upstream and downstream areas. You can't produce it, you can't produce it, you can't transport it, you can't do it, you can't do it, you can't do it. Tens of thousands of households cannot use pipelines. This problem poses a very severe test for us.” “Our problem is how to guarantee the use of gas to the residents of these big cities. Natural gas development is expensive. In order to prevent gas shortages, peaking is an important means. Must be run in production." Zhang stressed.