China to be world's 3rd largest natural gas producer in 2035

BEIJING: Energy-hungry China, which currently imports most of its oil and gas, is expected to become the world's third-largest natural gas producer in 2035.

Spurred by the country's huge demand, China will see a sharp increase in natural gas production and rank third place by 2035, following Russia and the United States, state-run Xinhua news agency today quoted secretary general of the International Gas Union (IGU) Torstein Indreb as saying.

Indreb was speaking at the the 2013 China International Pipeline Exhibition at Langfang city in north China's Hebei Province, the report said.

China's production volume of natural gas surged 6.7 per cent year on year to 106.7 billion cubic metres last year.

The total length of natural gas pipelines exceeded 55,000 kilometres across the country.

China plans to earmark 460 billion yuan (USD 75 billion) to build 65,000 kilometres of petroleum pipelines from 2011 to 2015, including 41,000 kilometres of natural gas pipelines.