China Energy/Power Technology, Strategic Layout of Resources: News & Discussions

[TaiShang]

400 billion USD/30-year megadeal is near completion. Western naysayers were saying this was impossible back in 2014.

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Russia’s Mega Gas Pipeline to China Nearly Complete

The Power of Siberia is 93% complete, gas deliveries will start flowing in late 2019

(RT)


One of the world’s longest gas pipelines – the Power of Siberia – which is being created to deliver natural gas from Russia to China, is now 93 percent complete.

According to Russian energy major Gazprom, 119 operational gas wells have been completed at the Chayandinskoye field in Yakutia. At the moment, the main technological equipment is being installed there. More than 2,000km of pipelines have been welded and laid from Yakutia to the Russian-Chinese border.

The construction of the two-thread underwater crossing of the pipeline across the Amur River is 78 percent complete, Gazprom said.

The Power of Siberia pipeline, which is also called the ‘Eastern Route,’ is one of the major projects between Russia and China. The pipeline could help Russia become one of China’s main providers of natural gas as demand in the country increases.

The 3,000km pipeline will be longer than the distance between Moscow and London. Deliveries should begin in late 2019. The deal on the ‘Eastern Route’ took more than a decade to negotiate. Last July, Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) inked an agreement to start gas deliveries via the route.

In May 2014, the two companies signed a $400 billion, 30-year framework to deliver 38 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to China annually. In 2017, Gazprom invested 158.8 billion rubles ($2.3 billion) in the project. This year it plans to invest another 218 billion rubles ($3.2 billion).

Moscow and Beijing plan to build another pipeline – Power of Siberia 2 or the ‘Western Route’ – that will deliver another 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia to China. According to the head of Gazprom, Aleksey Miller, China’s growing gas consumption, which was more than 200 billion cubic meters in 2016, will soon reach 300 billion cubic meters.

Source: RT

@vostok

 

[JSCh]

China "undisputed leader" in energy transition: report
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-10 18:59:52|Editor: Liangyu


OSLO, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- China is an "undisputed leader" in the world's energy transition as the country is transforming its energy mix to sustain rapid economic growth and protect local environments and the global climate, leading energy and shipping certification agency DNV GL said Monday in a report.

China's target is for renewables to account for 27 percent of power generation by 2020, while electricity is the focus of the energy transition, according to DNV GL's latest Energy Transition Outlook.

The Norway-based international certification agency predicted that Greater China's energy mix will change dramatically in the next two decades.

Currently, 82 percent of the region's energy demand is supplied by coal and oil while coal is by far the largest source, the report said.

From 2023, coal use will start to decline, first slowly and later more rapidly, and by 2050 it will supply only 11 percent of total energy, according to the report.

Oil use will continue to show solid growth and will peak in 2030 at a level 41 percent higher than today. Natural gas will grow its share in total energy use from 7 percent today to 19 percent in 2050.

China is leading the world's wind and solar photovoltaics (PV) growth, and the two sources combined will have 39 percent of the region's energy use in 2050, the DNV GL report said.

Greater China's electricity use in residential and commercial buildings, and later in transportation, increases rapidly, leading to electricity demand almost tripling by 2050, the report said.

Power generation currently dominated by coal will soon diversify, with strong growth in gas-fired and nuclear power.

Power production from onshore wind has been growing steadily since 2011 and will continue to do so: by 2050, it will be responsible for 26 percent of electricity production, with offshore wind contributing an additional 6 percent.

The biggest winner will be solar PV, which will surpass coal as the major power generator by 2034. By 2050, it will supply 52 percent of the region's power needs, with a total of 7 terawatt (TW) installed.

The report noted that the Greater China region is spearheading electrification of transport. It has a leading position in electric car manufacturing and is the world's largest market for electric light vehicles and buses.

Meanwhile, despite continued high emissions amid a collective global failure to reach the Paris Agreement goals, Greater China is on a track to decarbonize its economy faster than any other region over the coming decades, according to the report.

 

[TaiShang]

INSIDE CHINA

Wind Power Set to Oust Nuclear in Taiwan by 2025
Local and overseas businesses vie to capitalise on the island’s windswept coast.

05 September 2018

Online, on-trend and on-message: tracking Taiwan's route to renewable energy reliance

Back in 2016, Taiwan first began seriously focusing on offshore wind-power generation, with the aim of ending the territory's reliance on nuclear power by 2025. Now, after a two-year period of consultation and shortlisting, it has both completed its onward development strategy and identified its preferred suppliers, with the initiative expected to roll out over the next two years.

In many ways, harnessing offshore wind power is an obvious move for Taiwan. Around its coast, wind speeds of up to seven metres per second are recorded throughout the year, with the outer seas off Changhua, to the west of the territory, said to be among the best sites in the world for offshore wind farms. In combination with its solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass energy sources, such farms would be expected to provide 20% of the territory's overall power needs by 2025, enabling its nuclear-power generation facilities to be officially pensioned off.

According to local authorities, thermal sources (coal, gas and oil) provided 86% of Taiwan's power in 2017. Nuclear energy accounted for 8.3% and renewables just 4.5%, with a mere 0.6% derived directly from wind power.

This is set to change dramatically in the run-up to 2025. In August 2016, it was anticipated that, within seven years, the territory would have an installed wind-power generation capacity of 4.2 gigawatts (expressed in the familiar domestic unit, 4.2 million kilowatts), with onshore turbines providing 1.2GW and offshore turbines a further 3GW. At the time, the existing onshore capacity was 682 megawatts (projected to rise to 800MW by 2020), while the installed offshore capacity was zero (projected to rise to 520MW by 2020).

A subsequent rethink in October 2017 saw the projected total for 2025 raised to 5.5GW. Of this, 3.5GW will be provided on a contract basis at an agreed feed-in tariff rate, while the remaining 2GW will be allocated to the lowest-bidding supplier via an auction system.

In a bid to accelerate the growth of its off-shore wind-power capacity – a must given that the number of onshore sites is already approaching saturation point – Taiwan has looked to actively woo overseas contractors, especially those with cutting-edge technology and advanced systems integration experience. To this end, it has looked to foster joint ventures between the global leaders in the sector and local operators. All such potential suppliers would then be expected to embrace a three-step development model – demonstration of potential, initial exploitation and, finally, full-scale production.

Pilot Turbines
Ushering in a preliminary stage in 2012, local authorities, via the Offshore Wind Power Demonstration Incentive Programme, offered to pay 50% of the installation costs and up to NT$250 million (US$8.12 million) in subsidies to the three companies chosen to develop these pilot turbines by the 2020 initial deadline. In the end, the three successful bidders – all Taiwan-based – were Swancor Industrial, Taiwan Power Company (TPC) and Fuhai Wind Farm Corp.

As the project developed, Swancor completed work on its first two turbines in 2017, with its wind-farm sites subsequently passing the required environmental impact assessment. TPC was awarded the contract to develop the Changhua offshore wind-power demonstration project in February 2018, with Belgium's Jan de Nui Group and Japan's Hitachi signing a deal worth NT$24.99 billion (US$812 million) to manufacture and install the required turbines. The project is now expected to come online in late 2020. Following controversy over local fishing rights and a failed environmental impact assessment, Fuhai dropped out of the programme in January this year.

It was the second-stage tender, however, that attracted the real interest of overseas developers. In 2015, 36 potential wind-farm sites were identified with 22 subsequent proposals then subjected to environmental impact assessments and 19, eventually, given the go-ahead. In January this year, local authorities announced the proposed capacity and operational requirements for the planned offshore sites. This resulted in nine developers submitting bids for 18 sites, representing a proposed total installed capacity of about 10.6GW.

Following the completion of the second stage of the tender process in April, a shortlist of seven developers and 11 offshore sites was announced. Ultimately, this was whittled down to two operators – Swancor and Germany's wpd. The allocated capacity amounted to 738MW, with grid connection scheduled to be completed by 2021.

In a further round, where localisation was part of the criteria, the allocated capacity was 3,098MW, with the projects required to be grid-connected by 2025 at the latest. The winners here were Ørsted, wpd, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), China Steel Corporation (CSC), TPC and Northland Power Inc (NPI).

According to local authorities, the tenders had a combined capacity of 3.836GW, considerably above the initially targeted 3.5GW level. Three overseas developers – wpd, Ørsted and CIP – secured the largest share, perhaps reflecting the particular interest in the Taiwanese market on the part of European operators. Among the local contenders, TPC and CSC emerged as the major winners overall.

In total, 12 bids were submitted as part of the second-stage competitive price tender. Of these, two proved successful – NPI/Yushan and Ørsted – with both being granted extended grid capacity. Across four sites, the two developers have been allocated a total capacity of 1.66GW, with grid connection scheduled to be completed by 2025.

Of particular note is the impact that the highly competitive nature of the tendering had on the final pricing structure. As a result, the winning contractors will only receive between NT$2.22 (7.21 US cents) and NT$2.55 per kilowatt hour, with the specified range falling far below the original expectations of both local authorities and many within the industry. Significantly, the price is less than half of this year's officially stipulated feed-in rate for offshore wind power and even lower than Taiwan's current average electricity tariff (NT$2.60/kWh).

For the wholescale development in the third stage of the overall process, the chosen sites will be those in closest accordance with the designated environmental impact assessment requirements. Once operational, the approved sites will gradually extend operations from the shallow water areas into deeper waters.

For more China market opportunities, please visit: http://research.hktdc.com

 

[JSCh]

China to build two large coal-bed methane production bases
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-28 19:59:07|Editor: ZX


TAIYUAN, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- China plans to build two large coal-bed methane production bases in the northern coal-rich province of Shanxi, as the country seeks to increase gas use while curbing pollution and reducing heavy reliance on coal.

The two bases, one to be located in the Qinshui Basin and the other in the eastern Erdos Basin, each have a recoverable reserve of 1 trillion cubic meters, according to the Shanxi provincial development and reform commission, which has made environmental impact assessments public.

In the five years to 2020, China plans to newly add proven coal-bed methane reserves of 420 billion cubic meters and build two to three large coal-bed gas production bases. By 2020, the country's annual coal-bed methane output is expected to reach 24 billion cubic meters.

The two bases in Shanxi are major projects promoted by the National Energy Administration, with their outputs expected to reach a combined 8.3 billion cubic meters.

In 2020, Shanxi plans to raise its coal-bed gas output to 20 billion cubic meters and transport six billion cubic meters of gas from the two bases to other parts of the country through pipelines.

Coal represented 84.6 percent of Shanxi's energy mix in 2017 and local authorities plan to reduce the coal share to 80 percent in 2020 in a bid to fight pollution.

 

[JSCh]

World's highest! 380m-high power towers completed in China
New China TV
Published on Oct 2, 2018

A pair of transmission towers, which are 56 meters higher than the Eiffel Tower, have been completed in Zhoushan, east China.

 

[JSCh]

CORRESPONDENCE | 03 OCTOBER 2018
China’s electricity switch won’t be swift or painless
Jiang Lin

China is experimenting with electricity markets to hasten its transition to a clean-energy system. Currently, its annual generation plan allocates roughly the same operational hours to coal power plants irrespective of their cost or efficiency. Eventually, this will be supplanted by wholesale markets, allowing more-flexible operation of its power system within and across provinces and regions. This is an important step.

The evolution of electricity markets in China will not be swift, painless or linear, thanks to political and economic obstacles as well as entrenched stakeholder interests. But if designed and governed well, markets hold promise for resolving the political challenges that will otherwise frustrate China’s transition to a clean-energy system. They can accelerate the replacement of relatively cheap coal-fired energy with renewable energy as the increasing scale of solar and wind installations drives their costs to parity.

Other countries’ experiences are useful for reference. But China’s electricity markets will ultimately need to develop along a trajectory that is adapted to the nation’s particular conditions and challenges. These include long distances between electricity resources and demand centres, the continued need for large-scale investment, the political need for an orderly transition, and China’s distinctive approach to governance and regulation.

Markets that allow electricity to be traded and coordinated across regions that cover long distances are likely to be more feasible in China than they have been in the United States or Europe.

Nature 562, 39 (2018)

doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-06894-0


China’s electricity switch won’t be swift or painless | Nature.com

 

[JSCh]

BUSINESS NEWS
OCTOBER 3, 2018 / 3:43 PM
U.S. crude oil shipments to China 'totally stopped' amid trade war: shipping executive | Reuters

Anne Marie Roantree

HONG KONG (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil shipments to China have “totally stopped”, the President of China Merchants Energy Shipping Co (CMES) said on Wednesday, as the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies takes its toll on what was a fast growing businesses.

Washington and Beijing have slapped steep import tariffs on hundreds of goods in the past months. And although U.S. crude oil exports to China, which only started in 2016, have not yet been included, Chinese oil importers have shied away from new orders recently.

“We are one of the major carriers for crude oil from the U.S. to China. Before (the trade war) we had a nice business, but now it’s totally stopped,” Xie Chunlin, the president of CMES (601872.SS) said on the sidelines of the Global Maritime Forum’s Annual Summit in Hong Kong.

Ship tracking data in Refinitiv Eikon confirmed that U.S. crude oil shipments to China ground to a halt in September.

“It’s unfortunately happened, the trade war between the U.S. and China. Surely for the shipping business, it’s not good,” the CMES president said.

He also said the trade dispute was forcing China to seek soybeans from suppliers other than the United States, adding that China now bought most its soybeans from South America.

(For a graphic on 'U.S. crude oil shipments to China'click tmsnrt.rs/2Qommd2)

Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree; Writing by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Christian Schmollinger

 

[TaiShang]

BUSINESS NEWS
OCTOBER 3, 2018 / 3:43 PM
U.S. crude oil shipments to China 'totally stopped' amid trade war: shipping executive | Reuters

Anne Marie Roantree

HONG KONG (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil shipments to China have “totally stopped”, the President of China Merchants Energy Shipping Co (CMES) said on Wednesday, as the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies takes its toll on what was a fast growing businesses.

Washington and Beijing have slapped steep import tariffs on hundreds of goods in the past months. And although U.S. crude oil exports to China, which only started in 2016, have not yet been included, Chinese oil importers have shied away from new orders recently.

“We are one of the major carriers for crude oil from the U.S. to China. Before (the trade war) we had a nice business, but now it’s totally stopped,” Xie Chunlin, the president of CMES (601872.SS) said on the sidelines of the Global Maritime Forum’s Annual Summit in Hong Kong.

Ship tracking data in Refinitiv Eikon confirmed that U.S. crude oil shipments to China ground to a halt in September.

“It’s unfortunately happened, the trade war between the U.S. and China. Surely for the shipping business, it’s not good,” the CMES president said.

He also said the trade dispute was forcing China to seek soybeans from suppliers other than the United States, adding that China now bought most its soybeans from South America.

(For a graphic on 'U.S. crude oil shipments to China'click tmsnrt.rs/2Qommd2)

Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree; Writing by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Christian Schmollinger

Very good. The lost opportunities by the US producers will be filled by countries like Russia, Venezuela and Iran.

Win-win!

(I am waiting for the next US high official to declare that the US is winning the trade war. I am accustomed to hearing that at least once a day.)

 

[JSCh]

Sinopec Produced 6 Billion Cubic Meters of Shale Gas Last Year at China’s First Large-Scale Field
XU WEI
DATE: TUE, 03/27/2018 - 16:34 / SOURCE:YICAI

Sinopec Produced 6 Billion Cubic Meters of Shale Gas Last Year at China’s First Large-Scale Field​

(Yicai Global) March 27 -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., better known as Sinopec, produced just over 6 billion cubic meters of gas at the country’s first large-scale shale gas field in 2017, located in the western Chongqing municipality.

Beijing-based Sinopec completed the project on schedule at Fuling Shale Gas Field, the world’s largest field of its kind outside North America with an annual production capacity of 10 billion cubic meters, the company’s president Dai Houliang said at an annual review of operations.

The launch of operations marks that a significant step towards the large-scale commercialization of China's shale gas industry, Dai said, adding that its development could be significant in the diversification of the country’s energy mix. The sector could alleviate supply pressure in central and eastern China’s natural gas market in the long-run, while also accelerating energy conservation, emission reduction and air pollution control.

Gas sales and production from Fuling have both exceeded 16 billion cubic meters to date, while daily sales reached up to 16.7 million cubic meters last year, meeting the basic daily gas needs of 33.4 million households per day.

Dai highlighted Fuling as a new milestone in the history of China’s energy sector, and the shale gas field can act as a guide for global shale gas development.

An interconnection between the Fuling-Wangchang Gas Pipeline and the Sichuan-East Gas Pipeline was completed in 2015. Fuling shale gas is continuously transferred through the Sichuan-East Gas Pipeline to central and eastern China to provide clean energy for areas along the Yangtze River, traditionally areas of robust economic activity. Gas supplied to the concerned areas benefits thousands of companies and more than 200 million residents in more than 70 large- and medium-sized cities spanning six provinces.

China's first shale gas field output exceeds 20 billion cubic meters
CGTN
2018-10-07 14:40 GMT+8
Updated 2018-10-07 14:49 GMT+8

China reported on Saturday its total output of shale gas in the field of Fuling, southwest of the country has exceeded 20 billion cubic meters, marking the second largest shale gas field in the world next to the US.

According to China's National Energy Administration, the shale gas output is expected to reach 30 billion cubic meters by 2020, and 100 billion cubic meters by 2030, thanks to the improved capacity and drilling techniques.

China imported technologies from foreign companies in the early development phase. But no geology is ever the same, and blindly copying the technology from countries like the US is not as easy as one thinks.

"By learning from the imported technology and making innovations, we have developed the whole production technology from designing to extraction. We have made breakthroughs in the development of core technology and key equipment," said Guo Zhanfeng, head of the technology center of the Fuling shale gas project under the Sinopec Jianghan Oilfield.

Now China has realized the green and efficient development of shale gas within the depth of 3,500 meters, with independently developed technology. The drilling cycle has been shortened by over 30 percent compared with that during the early development phase, significantly reducing the development cost.

As the world's second largest shale gas field, it transmits clean energy to six provinces and two cities in the country, benefiting thousands of companies.

 

[JSCh]

PetroChina sets new record at Tarim oilfield
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-10-10 10:54

An employee collects data at Tarim oilfield in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. [Photo/Xinhua]

After the drilling operations at Well Keshen 2-2-10 wrapped up successfully, it only took the drilling crews of PetroChina Tarim oilfield Co two days to put 17 single wells into production, setting a new record.

So far, a total of 100 new wells have begun production at the Tarim oilfield in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, offering strong support for the construction of the 30 million ton oil and gas field.

In order to achieve stable oil and gas production and high-efficient development, the Tarim oilfield adjusted the production of old gas fields scientifically and speeded up the restoration.

Since this year, total output of oil and natural gas in the Tarim oilfield topped 4.07 million tons and 19.5 billion cubic meters, up 273,200 tons and 803 million cubic meters, respectively, from last year.

As one of China's largest natural gas producers, the Tarim oilfield has been a key provider for a 4,000-km pipeline project bringing natural gas from the west to the east.

Currently, the oilfield has a capacity to send 25 billion cubic meters of natural gas to eastern China and southern part of Xinjiang annually, benefiting 400 million people and 3,000 enterprises in more than 120 cities.

According to PetroChina's plan, over the next three years, the oil and gas equivalent output of the Tarim oilfield will be 30 million tons, equivalent to building a million-ton oil and gas field annually.

 

[JSCh]

PUBLIC RELEASE: 12-OCT-2018
New catalyst opens door to CO2 capture in conversion of coal to liquid fuels
EINDHOVEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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IMAGE: RESEARCHERS PROFESSOR EMIEL HENSEN AND WEI CHEN FROM EINDHOVEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. CREDIT: EINDHOVEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY/BART VAN OVERBEEKE

World energy consumption projections expect coal to stay one of the world's main energy sources in the coming decades, and a growing share of it will be used in CTL, the conversion of coal to liquid fuels. Researchers from the National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy in Beijing and Eindhoven University of Technology have developed iron-based catalysts that substantially reduce operating costs and open the door to capturing the large amounts of CO2 that are generated by CTL. Their results are published in the journal Science Advances.

To understand the significance of this achievement, some knowledge of the CTL process is required. The first stage is the conversion of coal to syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2). Using the so-called Fischer-Tropsch process, these components are converted to liquid fuels. But before that can be done, the composition of the syngas has to be changed to make sure the right products come out in the end - liquid fuels. So some of the CO is taken out of the syngas (rejected) by converting it to CO2, in a process called 'water-gas shift'.

In this chain the researchers tackled a key problem in the Fischer-Tropsch reactor. As in most chemical processing, catalysts are required to enable the reactions. CTL catalysts are mainly iron based. Unfortunately, they convert some 30 percent of the CO to unwanted CO2, a byproduct that in this stage is hard to capture and thereby often released in large volumes, consuming a lot of energy without benefit.

The Beijing and Eindhoven researchers discovered that the CO2 release is caused by the fact that the iron based catalysts are not pure, but consist of several components. They were able to produce a pure form of a specific iron carbide, called epsilon iron carbide, that has a very low CO2 selectivity. In other words, it generates almost no CO2 at all. The existence was already known but until now it had not been stable enough for the harsh Fischer-Tropsch process. The Sino-Dutch research team has now shown that this instability is caused by impurities in the catalyst. The phase-pure epsilon iron carbide they developed is, by contrast, stable and remains functional, even under typical industrial processing conditions of 23 bar and 250oC.

The new catalyst eliminates nearly all CO2 generation in the Fischer-Tropsch reactor. This can reduce the energy needed and the operating costs by roughly 25 million euros per year for a typical CTL plant. The CO2 that was previously released in this stage can now be removed in the preceding water-gas shift stage. That is good news, because it is much easier to capture in this stage. The technology to make this happen is called CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage). It has been developed by other parties and is already being applied in several pilot plants.

The conversion of coal to liquid fuels is especially relevant in coal-rich countries that have to import oil for their supply of liquid fuels, such as China and the US. "We are aware that our new technology facilitates the use of coal-derived fossil fuels. However, it is very likely that coal-rich countries will keep on exploiting their coal reserves in the decades ahead. We want to help them do this in the most sustainable way," says lead researcher professor Emiel Hensen of Eindhoven University of Technology.

The research results are likely to reduce the efforts to develop CTL catalysts based on cobalt. Cobalt based catalysts do not have the CO2 problem, but they are expensive and quickly becoming a scarce resource due to cobalt use in batteries, which account for half of the total cobalt consumption.

Hensen expects that the newly developed catalysts will also play an import role in the future energy and basic chemicals industry. The feedstock will not be coal or gas, but waste and biomass. Syngas will continue to be the central element, as it is also the intermediate product in the conversion of these new feedstocks.



New catalyst opens door to CO2 capture in conversion of coal to liquid fuels | EurekAlert! Science News

Peng Wang, Wei Chen, Fu-Kuo Chiang, A. Iulian Dugulan, Yuanjun Song, Robert Pestman, Kui Zhang, Jinsong Yao, Bo Feng, Ping Miao, Wayne Xu, Emiel J. M. Hensen. Synthesis of stable and low-CO2 selective ε-iron carbide Fischer-Tropsch catalysts. Science Advances (2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau2947​

 

[JSCh]

Heilongjiang Sets Up Firm to Handle China-Russia LNG Pipeline
LIU JING & TANG SHIHUA
DATE: TUE, 07/31/2018 - 19:13 / SOURCE:YICAI

Heilongjiang Sets Up Firm to Handle China-Russia LNG Pipeline​

(Yicai Global) July 31 -- The provincial government of Heilongjiang has set up a company to build and operate a natural gas pipeline connecting the northern Chinese region with Russia.

Heilongjiang Natural Gas Pipeline Network was established in provincial capital Harbin today, state-backed China News Service reported. The network it has been founded to build is set to cost CNY13 billion (USD1.9 billion) and encompass 36 lines covering 2,800 kilometers, connecting 12 major cities and branching out into surrounding counties.

The firm is currently devising a plan for construction and hopes to begin work by the end of this year, the report said. It expects to enter operation around the end of next year at the same time as the China-Russia eastern route natural gas pipeline, which is set to increase LNG imports from Russia to about 38 billion cubic meters a year, roughly equal to 16 percent of all natural gas consumed in China in 2017.

China and Russia resumed talks for their western pipeline earlier this month, from which a successful deal could see the Eurasian nation becoming China’s biggest LNG supplier as ties between the world’s second-largest economy and the United States continue to waver. The western line would add another 30 billion cubic meters a year and the Yamal LNG megaproject, which sends gas to China from Russia via the Arctic Circle, could add a further four billion.

Northern Part of China-Russia Gas Pipeline's Eastern Route 83 Pct Completed
CCTV+
Published on Oct 14, 2018

Construction of the northern section of the eastern route of the China-Russia natural gas pipeline has been completed by 83 percent, and the northern section is expected to meet the technical standards for operation by October 2019.

Connecting Heihe City of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and Changling County of northeast China's Jilin Province, the northern part is 715 kilometers in length.

As scheduled, the entire eastern route of the China-Russia natural gas pipeline will be completed and put into operation by the end of 2020. After the completion of its construction, the new natural gas pipeline will be joined with China's existing natural gas transmission network, and provide areas in China's northeast, around the Bohai Sea Bay, and in the Yangtze River Delta with stable natural gas supply.

The part of the eastern route in China starts in Heihe City and ends in Shanghai. According to deals between the two countries, Russia will transmit 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China every year.

According to Dong Chunyan, a worker with China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd. (CPP), they have to overcome the most challenging weather conditions and follow the strictest technical requirements to put up the northern section.

 

[JSCh]

CNOOC lifts natural gas supplies
By Zheng Xin | China Daily | Updated: 2018-10-13 10:10

A port worker assists with the docking of an LNG container ship at China National Offshore Oil Corp's terminal in Tianjin. [Photo by Jia Lei/For China Daily]

Company beefs up facilities to ensure adequate stocks for northern regions this winter

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) said on Friday that it would bolster its liquefied natural gas storage facilities to ensure adequate supplies of the clean fuel to northern parts of the country this winter.

The company enlarged the capacity of its current LNG terminal in Tianjin with the addition of a new 160,000-cubic-meter-storage capacity LNG tank.

The tank can supply natural gas for the 15 million Tianjin residents for 45 days and help ensure sufficient gas supply in the northern parts of the country, said Wang Xiaogang, managing director of the Tianjin LNG project.

CNOOC, which built the country's first LNG terminal in 2006, currently operates nine LNG terminals nationwide, among which only the Tianjin terminal is located in the north and is already operating at full capacity.

The ninth LNG terminal in Shenzhen entered operation in early August, with a receiving capacity of 4 million metric tons per year.

The company has stepped up construction of its LNG infrastructure facilities in recent years while diversifying its overseas LNG sources to ensure sufficient natural gas to meet the nation's increasing demand.

According to CNOOC, natural gas supplied to the northern parts of the country will reach 6.1 billion cu m, 63.5 percent up compared with the same period last year.

It also vowed to use trucks to ship LNG from its receiving terminals in southern China to ease gas shortages in the north, if necessary, against the backdrop of the central government's efforts to minimize pollution and encourage higher gas usage to replace coal for heating in winter.

According to Na Min, a senior analyst for oil and gas at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, as China pursues its environmental goals, the momentum of more natural gas imports is expected to continue during the upcoming heating season and the country's oil and gas majors will apply all measures possible to ensure a relatively stable supply.

"The national oil majors will need to increase alternative supplies, namely pipeline imports and LNG imports from other countries," said Na. "Australia, Southeast Asia and Qatar will likely be the preferred choices."

China's gas consumption grew 15 percent in the first half of 2018 from a year earlier, which led to a 50 percent surge in LNG imports, pushing them to a historic high of 24 million tons in the first half of 2018.

Approaching the winter peak season, the China gas market is still tight, she added.

According to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, China is expected to surpass Japan by December to become the world's biggest natural gas importer, with the gas import quantity gap set to widen further.

 

[JSCh]

New Bohai gas discovery to ease winter shortages
By Zheng Xin | China Daily | Updated: 2018-10-18 09:14

A port worker assists with the docking of an LNG container ship at China National Offshore Oil Corp's terminal in Tianjin. [Photo by Jia Lei/For China Daily]

China National Offshore Oil Corp has made a large-sized natural gas field discovery in the Bohai oilfield, which will likely ease the gas shortage in northern China, the company said on Wednesday.

Discovery well Bozhong 19-6, which includes 10 wells with an average depth exceeding 4,000 meters, will see further evaluation of its gas reservoirs and proceed to the exploitation stage when all tests are completed, it said.

The company said earlier that the evaluation well was tested to produce some 1,000 barrels of oil and 6.4 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, with the gas reservoir seeing a total thickness of 348 meters.

According to Xue Yongan, chief geologist of CNOOC Bohai Oil Administration, the gas discovery will help safeguard China's energy security and reduce the nation's reliance on gas imports.

Over its five decades of exploration, most of the proven reserves in the Bohai Bay Basin, which has seven oilfields including Bohai and Shengli, have been crude oil rather than gas.

"Despite the fact that most of the gas reserves are located 3,500 meters beneath the seabed, which makes it challenging to find gas reserves, technical research and studies in recent years have laid a solid foundation and made exploitation possible," said Xue.

Compared with the oil and gas fields abroad, most of which are located in shallow areas, China has to rely more on deep drilling techniques to access resources as most of the reserves are located in deep-sea areas, he said.

Analysts believe that the gas project will play a significant role in easing the gas shortage of the Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin region of northern China.

According to Na Min, a senior analyst for oil and gas at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, China's top three oil and gas majors are likely to take all possible measures to ensure a relatively stable supply as the nation approaches the winter peak season.

CNOOC, which built China's first LNG terminal in 2006 and operates nine LNG terminals nationwide so far, has been pushing forward with the construction of LNG gas storage facilities while diversifying its overseas LNG sources in recent years to ensure adequate supplies of the clean fuel for the upcoming winter. It recently enlarged the capacity of its LNG terminal in Tianjin with the addition of a new 160,000-cubic-meter-storage capacity LNG tank.

CNOOC Gas and Power Group, a unit of China National Offshore Oil Corp, also signed a long-term purchase and sales contract supplementary agreement with France-based oil and gas giant Total Gas & Power Ltd on Tuesday, aiming to strengthen LNG cooperation, increasing contracted annual LNG purchases from one million tons for 15 years to 1.5 million metric tons annually for 20 years, said the company.

This is against the backdrop of China aiming to increase the share of natural gas in its energy mix in order to clean the environment. National oil majors have been increasing alternative supplies, including pipeline imports and LNG imports from other countries to ensure sufficient gas supply.

China's gas consumption increased 15 percent year-on year during the first six months of 2018, leading to a 50 percent surge in LNG imports, pushing the figure to a historic high of 24 million tons in the first half of this year.

Na said China would be far better equipped to handle the surge in winter demand this year. New and expanded long-term LNG contracts, the additional import capacity of LNG terminals, and increased storage and pipeline connectivity would alleviate the type of pressure which was seen last year.

 

[TaiShang]

Construction begins on China’s first floating nuclear plant

Source:Global Times Published: 2018/11/5

Photo taken on March 21, 2018 shows the installation site of a hemispherical dome at the No. 6 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation's Fuqing nuclear power plant in southeast China's Fujian Province. In May of 2017, a containment dome was installed on the No. 5 unit of the nuclear power plant, the first reactor featuring the Hualong One design. (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan)



Construction on a floating nuclear power plant worth 1.4 million yuan ($202,000) has begun in Yantai, East China's Shandong Province, which will reportedly be the country's first floating nuclear power plant.

The first platform of the project will be put into use in 2021. It will be able to provide clean energy to coastal cities, islands, offshore work platforms, polar and remote regions, Qilu Evening News reported Friday.

The construction is a major step to guaranteeing China's marine strategy and security, the report said.

The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) is in charge of the project, the report said, citing announcements made at the 2018 nuclear power industry forum in Yantai on Thursday.

At the start of the year, the CNNC and Yantai government signed an agreement to cooperate on a clear energy composite supply platform and pool-type low-temperature reactor, according to the CNNC website.

The website said in September that CNNC had completed the preliminary design of a reactor called Yanlong based on the company's safe and stable operation of pool-type experimental reactors over the past 50 years.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1125926.shtml