Gas shortage lingers in cities

• Source: Global Times
• [08:09 November 25 2009]
• Comments

The nation's top economic planner is urging suppliers to meet maximum distribution rates to meet the demand. Photo:Xinhua

By Kang Juan

Chinese cities are grappling for a second week with the most serious natural gas shortage in nearly a decade, triggered by unusually early winter weather, and the nation's top economic planner is urging suppliers to meet maximum distribution rates to meet the demand.

Energy analysts, while giving various explanations for the squeeze, including low gas prices, an insufficient storage system and a monopolistic market, are split over whether a price adjustment would serve as a viable solution.

The shortfalls began this month when early, heavy snow hit northern China, sending heating demand up and forcing supplies in southern China to be diverted north. The cold spell then hit the south, compounding the demand problem and slowing supplies.

The surging demand for gas has subsequently caused a gas shortage in China's central and eastern regions, and the government is taking emergency measures to tackle the issue, Zhang Guobao, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and director of the energy bureau, said Monday.

"The gas suppliers should try their best to extend the production potential, use storage resources and increase imports to ensure the supply," he said.

An additional 1 billion cubic meters of gas is needed, despite the west-to-east transmission of 17 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Zhang said, adding that tight gas supplies had started to gradually ease across the country. But some say the situation could get worse.

As demand peaks in December and January, daily gas shortages are expected to reach 8 million cubic meters in northern China and up to 6 million cubic meters in the south, China Petroleum Daily, an in-house newspaper of China National Petroleum Cooperation (CNPC), said Tuesday, sending a different message than that of the government.

The gas shortage for buses reached 30,000 cubic meters per day in Zhengzhou, capital city of Henan Province, and sometimes more than a hundred buses could be seen in long lines at gas stations, Zhengzhou's Orient Today reported Monday.

"It took half an hour to wait for a bus recently; normally it's 10 minutes at most," a local man surnamed Ma was quoted by the paper as saying.

The government decided to cut supplies to taxis from Monday to ensure the operation of gas-fueled buses, which

 account for nearly a half of 4,300 buses in the city. Zhengzhou Gas Group said the city is facing a shortage of 50 million cubic meters of natural gas this year.

The normal gas supply in downtown Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, can be maintained until today after it resumed Sunday, local authorities said, though future supply remains uncertain.

In order to ensure household usage, 44 industrial plants were cut off from their gas supply, and six had been limited in consumption by last week, forcing many of them to shut down.

Some cities in central and southern China, including Jiangsu, Shandong and Shanxi, are also facing severe gas shortages this winter.