QINGDAO: China would need 200 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2015, doubling the 2008 level, Liu Xiaoli, a senior researcher at the energy research institute under the National Development and Reform Commission, predicted Monday.
The nation's annual demand for the clean energy will grow to 300 billion cu m by 2020, according to Liu.
Between 2000 and 2008, China's annual consumption of natural gas grew 16.2 percent on average, 9.7 percentage points higher than the annual growth rate for oil consumption, or 6.6 percentage points higher than the annual growth rate for coal consumption.
Last year, China produced 82.99 billion cu m of natural gas, and the growth rate in production averaged at 13.2 percent for each of the years between 2000 and 2009.
By the end of 2008, China verified workable natural gas deposits of 6.34 trillion cu m.
