China's soaring natural gas output still unable to meet demand

Beijing

CHINA'S natural gas production is rising at the fastest pace in four years but that will not be enough to meet the demand for the fuel that has been unleashed through a government programme to raise gas usage in order to clean the country's polluted air.

Gas output in China rose to a record 147.4 billion cubic metres (bcm) last year, up 8.5 per cent from 2016, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Gas production is forecast to climb by between 6 per cent and 8 per cent per year through 2020, according to researchers at China National Petroleum Corp.