China on Sunday witnessed the start of operations of a recently built super-large natural gas storage cluster in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

As a key oil and natural gas infrastructure project, the Changqing oilfield Sudong 39-61 natural gas storage cluster was officially put into operation on Sunday. The facility has a designed capacity of 2.23 billion cubic meters and an operational gas volume of 1.08 billion cubic meters.

According to CCTV's report, a deputy factory director under the China National Petroleum Corp mentioned that the facility could increase about 3.5 million cubic meters of natural gas supplies every day for the winter peak in 2022.

After reaching the designed capacity, the storage can increase about 12 million cubic meters of natural gas supplies every day. Considering that a family of three uses about 1 cubic meter of natural gas each day on average in winter, the natural gas storage can meet the demand of about 100 million households for 10 days.

Besides, the facility can store surplus natural gas in summer and autumn when demand is low, while supplying it in peak seasons of winter and spring, thus contributing to alleviating the supply shortage of natural gas in certain periods of the year.

The factory executive also noted that relevant companies using stored gas during peak seasons can reap some profit .

China's consumption of natural gas showed a rising trend in recent years. In 2021, the country's natural gas consumption reached about 373 billion cubic meters, up 12.7 percent, according to data released by China's National Development and Reform Commission.