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Massive 10 billion cubic meter gas storage facility put into use in northern China
Published: Oct 18, 2021 11:40 PM
The Wei 11 gas storage  Photo: Courtesy of Sinopec

Zhongyuan gas storage group Photo: Courtesy of Sinopec



The largest underground natural gas storage cluster in northern China, with a capacity of 10.03 billion cubic meters, was put into operation on Monday. It will guarantee stable energy supply in northern China for this winter and next spring.

With gas injected in the newly built Wei 11 natural gas storage cluster in Puyang, Central China's Henan Province on Monday, the Zhongyuan gas storage group, the largest gas storage cluster in northern China, officially began operation, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) told the Global Times on Monday. 

The storage mainly covers the region of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River - Henan Province and East China's Shandong Province.

The Zhongyuan gas storage group is currently made up of three gas storage centers - Wen 23, Wen 96 and Wei 11. 

The newly built Wei 11 gas storage center is a vital component of the Zhongyuan gas storage group with a maximum capacity of 1.009 billion cubic meters. It can meet the daily natural gas usage needs of 10 million families.

By the end of this year, two more gas storage facilities in the Zhongyuan gas cluster constructed by Sinopec will be completed and put into operation for a trial run. It is estimated that the capacity of the two newly built gas storage centers will be 1.116 billion cubic meters, according to Sinopec.

"The construction of massive storage facilities can enlarge the reserves of natural gas to confront an emergency situation," Wang Yongzhong, head of the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.

"Natural gas is one of the major clean energy categories that is vital for China's goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, so China has considerable demand for natural gas at present," said Wang.

 
Zhongyuan gas storage group Photo: Courtesy of Sinopec

Zhongyuan gas storage group Photo: Courtesy of Sinopec



Wang revealed that the amount of coal reserves is much more than oil and gas in China, meaning that coal is still the major energy source in China's energy structure. He noted that the majority of China's natural gas is imported from other countries including Turkmenistan, Qatar and Russia.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, domestically produced gas in January to September 2021 saw a year-on-year increase of 10.4 percent, reaching 151.8 billion tons, while the imported natural gas increased 22.2 percent to 898.5 billion tons in total.

"But the imports of natural gas may slow down and could even be suspended due to bad weather conditions," said Wang. He said that better storage ability for natural gas will solve these problems and further secure the country's power supply.

"However, due to the energy structure of China, the enlargement of natural gas storage can only ease the current power shortage in the short term. The essence of the difficulties must be fixed based on multiple aspects," said Wang.