BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 2
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
It is likely there will be some recovery in the volume of gas imported by China from Turkmenistan in the coming months, Tom Marzec-Manser, Global Gas Analyst at Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) told Trend.
The recovery will be implemented due to the fact that price of Turkmen gas becomes slightly more competitive against other sources of imported gas into China, he said.
“The negative impact of the coronavirus upon Chinese gas demand earlier this year meant that China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) – as the main importer of pipeline gas into China – was forced to issue force majeure notices to many of its suppliers to reduce volumes to below contracted levels. This included Turkmenistan's Turkmengas State Concern of Turkmenistan,” he said to clarify the reason of current low gas prices.
CIS data show that based on the first nine months of 2020, Turkmen gas exports to China fell to 22.2 billion cubic meters. Across all of 2019, Turkmen supply to China was 33.8 billion cubic meters, broadly in line with contracted terms.
China’s overall forecast growth in gas demand in the coming years further supports the likelihood that volumes exported from Turkmenistan to China will return close to contracted levels, Marzec-Manser said.
Turkmenistan remains the leader in pipeline gas supplies to China in August.
Most of the gas supplied by the Turkmen side to China was extracted from fields operated by the country’s Turkmengas State Concern.
Also, a new field on the territory of Bagtyyarlyk is being put into operation in the country. The field is being explored and developed by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
The volume of investments of CNPC, which has been operating since 2007 in this contract territory in the Eastern part of Turkmenistan, amounted to more than $ 8.2 billion at the beginning of 2020.
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