China's 2015 natural gas production rose by 2.9 percent from the previous year - the slowest growth in at least 10 years - official data showed on Tuesday, amid ample supply and weak domestic demand for the cleaner-burning fuel. Production reached 127.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics said. In 2014, production was roughly 123.5 bcm, up about 7 percent, Reuters calculations derived from the official data on Tuesday shows.
The statistics bureau typically revises its data on a monthly basis and the percentage change for 2015 output indicates that the previously provided 2014 figure will be revised. In 2013, natural gas production rose by 11.5 percent from the previous year to 115.4 bcm, the NBS said. The 2015 output growth was the slowest since Reuters began collecting the data in 2005. Chinese gas consumption has been hit by slowing domestic economic growth and by state policies that kept prices high for most of the year, even as the global oil prices that underpin long-term gas supply contracts slumped to less than half their 2014 peaks.
Chinese gas consumption grew 3.7 percent in the first 11 months of 2015, according to the latest data from China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). For full-year 2014, gas usage climbed 5.6 percent and 12.9 percent in full-year 2013. "Gas production growth is constrained by demand," said Zhu Chen of SIA Energy in Beijing, and "also impacted by the contracted piped gas and LNG imports." Excess contracted LNG supplies from Qatar and Papua New Guinea as well as piped gas imports from Central Asia have left China with surplus fuel that it has tried to sell off abroad after domestic demand slowed.