Staff members from PipeChina conduct a daily inspection of the China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline in Qinhuangdao, North China's Hebei Province on November 1, 2022, aiming to strengthen inspections of the route and ensure the daily consumption of gas for households in the Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin region of North China. Photo: VCG

The daily natural gas output of the Tarim Oilfield in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, one of the main sources for west-to-east gas transmission, has surpassed 100 million cubic meters, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

This shows that the field plays a very important role in the country's energy security as temperatures turn colder and downstream demand for natural gas surges.

According to the report, the Tarim Oilfield has ramped up efforts to increase oil and natural gas production capacity, as well as accelerated the implementation of oil and gas production projects in the southern Tianshan Mountain and the hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert. The daily output by new natural gas wells has exceeded 10 million cubic meters in the field.

The cumulative natural gas output of the field in 2022 reached 30.3 billion cubic meters, 360 million cubic meters more than a year earlier, the report said.

At present, 19 natural gas wells across the Tarim Oilfield are fully operational to supply natural gas to nearly 400 million people in about 120 Chinese cities scattered in 15 provinces and cities along the west-east natural gas transmission pipeline.

This is one example of Chinese energy producing locations ramping up output to make sure that China has sufficient energy during winter. The country experienced relatively severe power shortages last year and earlier this year at peak use times in certain regions.

The state broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday that China's largest full-structure natural gas field on land, the Sulige natural gas field in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, exceeded daily output of 100 million cubic meters, which can supply the daily natural gas consumption of 50 million households.

So far in 2022, 1,204 new natural gas wells were developed in the Sulige field, ramping up daily output by 16.25 million cubic meters. The cumulative natural gas output of the field in 2022 reached 28.68 billion cubic meters, and it was estimated to hit the benchmark of 30 billion cubic meters at the end of 2022.

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Sunday that China's oil and natural gas supply is stable this winter, unaffected by factors on global markets.

"The pipeline operation was stable, the price was lower than the international price, and people's lives were barely affected," he told the Global Times.

Lin noted that China is still highly dependent on coal in its energy structure. "With the easing of epidemic policies next year, the supply of natural gas will not be affected by the recovery of industrial production," he said.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, China produced 178.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the first 10 months this year, up 6 percent year-on-year. Imports of natural gas slipped by 10.4 percent.

Global Times