China Needs More Space Underground to Store Gas
- Meeting winter demand requires larger storage infrastructure
- Storage can meet 3.3% of China demand vs 11.7% global average
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While China seeks more natural gas to meet booming demand from President Xi Jinping’s clean-air drive, one part of the fuel’s supply chain isn’t growing fast enough to avoid a repeat of this winter’s supply crunch.
Large, underground storage caverns are coming into focus as the missing link that the world’s biggest energy user needs to smooth out supply between weak consumption in the summer and surging demand in the winter. While China has plans to more than triple storage capacity by the end of next decade, that still might not be enough to keep pace with its growing appetite, according to analysts at IHS Markit Ltd. and Wood Mackenize Ltd.