China’s NOCs to Secure National Heating Peak
According to sources, China’s national natural gas supply has reached the historical high at 1.32 billion cubic meters per day by January 8, 2021, dramatically rising by 16.6% from last year’s same period, and helping China to spend the coldest winter in the 21st century.
La Niña and other factors like Siberia's cold spells severely influenced China’s 2020-2021 winter weather. The typical La Niña phenomenon is for cold December and warm November, January and February. However, nobody could have foreseen such an extreme situation that happened in December lasting until early January and also bringing volatility to the rest days of the winter. The nationwide low temperature coming with the two cold spells in mid-December and early January posted enormous heating demand on natural gas and power utility not only in the traditional northern regions but also in southern regions of China.
Confronting this, the three state-owned upstream suppliers, CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC, together with the midstream giant PipeChina, imposed significant supply security measures and peak-shaving emergency countermeasures to provide a stable natural gas supply during this nationwide heating peak. In the above-mentioned 1.32 bcm daily gas supply, CNPC took responsible for 785 million cubic meters, Sinopec took up 193 million cubic meters and CNOOC tool up 233 million cubic meters, and the three oil giants in total provided 92% of the national natural gas supply.
