To serve the carbon reduction target, natural gas still needs to "climb the hurdle"

A few days ago, the Development Research Center of the State Council, the Institute of Resources, Policy and Environment, and the Energy Research Institute of Peking University jointly issued the "China Natural Gas High-quality Development Report 2021" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report").
Leapfrogging development, the construction of the production, supply, storage and marketing system is beginning to take shape, the relevant infrastructure and market-led operating mechanism are gradually being improved, and it is on a virtuous track of high-quality development
.

Urgent need for further support from policies and technologies

The "Report" pointed out that under the new situation, there are different opinions on the positioning of natural gas.

Looking at the previous natural gas development policies, the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Natural Gas Development" proposes to "increase the proportion of natural gas in primary energy consumption, and upgrade to "in the 13th Five-Year Plan for Natural Gas Development" to gradually cultivate natural gas as the mainstay Energy one", the development status of natural gas is gradually consolidated
.

In the past ten years, the natural gas utilization policy has been revised several times, but the pace of policy adjustments almost always lags behind market changes, and the shortage of natural gas supply in winter has caused widespread "gas source anxiety".

Tian Lei, a researcher at the China Institute of Macroeconomics, pointed out that before China's carbon peaks, natural gas will still be an important starting point for carbon emission reduction in the domestic energy system
.

In addition to policy issues, the natural gas industry has limited breakthroughs in core technologies, and there are still deep-seated problems in the scientific research system and mechanism
.

Liu He, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that at present, oil and gas fields are "difficult to produce reserves", and there is an urgent need for a large number of advanced technologies and equipment
.

　　The coordination of the industrial chain needs to be improved

　　The "Report" pointed out that the overall incoordination of domestic natural gas from supply to demand and the industrial chain from planning to construction and operation is prominent
.

　　In the past ten years, restricted by factors such as increasing difficulty in exploration and development and unclear market development expectations, the growth rate of natural gas production has not been able to keep pace with the growth rate of consumption
.

　　According to data, during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, China's natural gas consumption growth rate was 12.

　　At the same time, the coordination of natural gas pipeline network construction and operation is not high, and insufficient gas storage capacity is still the main bottleneck restricting stable and coordinated development
.
Among them, imperfect infrastructure is still a shortcoming in the coordinated development of natural gas
.

　　Data show that China’s 330 billion cubic meters of natural gas consumption currently only has 110,000 kilometers of trunk pipelines, while the US’s 832 billion cubic meters of consumption corresponds to more than 500,000 kilometers of trunk pipelines
.
In 2020, the working gas volume of underground gas storage in China will only account for 4.
4% of natural gas consumption, which is far from the world average of 10%-15%.
Moreover, due to capital, technology, cost and other reasons, urban gas companies will have a limited amount of terminal consumption.
The progress of gas storage capacity building is obviously lagging behind, and it has not been able to achieve the goal of "not less than 5% of its annual gas storage capacity" set by the State Council in 2018
.
The overall coordination of natural gas pipelines between the national pipeline network and gas companies needs to be strengthened
.

　　Due to the uncoordinated development of the natural gas industry chain, natural gas consumption in various regions is unbalanced, and urban gas development levels are quite different
.

　　The "Report" pointed out that at present, the consumption of natural gas in urban and rural areas is imbalanced, and the gas penetration rate in rural areas needs to be increased
.
The per capita disposable income of rural residents is relatively low, the affordability of prices is worse, the degree of infrastructure penetration is also lower, natural gas is unavailable and can not be used, and the development of gas is at a relatively low level relative to urban areas
.

　　Green development faces challenges

　　As the cleanest fossil energy at present, the role of natural gas in serving the carbon reduction target remains to be further explored
.

　　On the one hand, the development of natural gas in the transportation field is relatively slow, and the construction of supporting infrastructure and other aspects needs to be strengthened urgently
.
Among them, the natural gas vehicle and ship industry is not fully developed, and it is difficult to play its due role in the prevention and control of the atmospheric environment in the field of highways and inland water transportation
.
The overall scale of natural gas vehicles and ships is relatively small
.

　　According to data, as of 2020, the number of LNG heavy trucks in the country is about 582,000, accounting for only 7.
2% of the total number of heavy trucks; there are more than 290 LNG-powered ships, accounting for about 0.
3% of the number of inland water transport ships, and the scale of LNG vehicles is larger than that of domestic vehicles.
Overall, the market share is obviously too small
.

　　In this regard, the "Report" believes that high investment and operating costs, serious inadequate infrastructure, weak foundations in all links of the industrial chain, backward supporting facilities, excessively high existing safety technical specifications, and low enthusiasm of ship owners and vehicle owners are the main reasons
.

　　On the other hand, at present, natural gas, which accounts for about 7% of global production every year, is leaked into the atmosphere during the production process, which has a double negative impact on the environment and the economy.
The resulting disputes over whether natural gas is a clean energy source are constantly being controlled.
The problem has become a bottleneck restricting the development of the natural gas industry
.
The methane emission control system needs to be established
.

　　The "Report" believes that, for a long time, companies have mainly controlled and controlled the venting of large-emission natural gas with economic value, and there has been a lack of targeted emission control measures for a large number of venting and leakage behaviors with wide distribution and small single emissions
.
At present, there is only a thicker line of accounting methods, and the accounting results only stay on the overall estimation scale, and the control degree is not yet complete
.
The basic research work to control methane emissions is insufficient, the current emission accounting factors are too coarse, the parameters are not updated in time, and there is a lack of specific calculations on the emissions of various natural gas enterprises, and it is impossible to guide the formation of corresponding emission control plans
.

　　The "Report" recommends that in the future, we should strengthen the improvement and refinement of methane emission control policies and top-level design, and focus on key weak links to achieve deep methane emissions reduction
.
(Reporter Qu Peiran)

　　Transfer from: China Energy News