Chinese Vie for Asian Hub Supremacy

摘要

More and more local governments in China want to establish their own gas trading hubs,seemingly undeterred by problems at the two existing exchanges in Shanghai and Chongqing(WGI Oct.10’18).Despite competition from Japan and Singapore,most Chinese industry players believe the country is destined to become Asia’s main gas trading hub,establishing a price benchmark or benchmarks for the region,because it is Asia’s biggest gas consumer.The central government has made development of gas hubs a priority,and local governments want their exchanges to become the most powerful.Chinese sources tell Energy Intelligence that’s partly because officials think this could boost local economies,but mainly because they believe it could help their chances of promotion.The latest provincial government to throw its hat in the ring is Zhejiang,on the East Coast,which established the Zhejiang Mercantile Exchange during the International Petroleum and Natural Gas Enterprises Conference in Zhoushan earlier this month.The conference,sponsored by the local government,featured presentations from Western majors including Exxon Mobil,Total,and BP,commodities traders Glencore and Trafigura,and US LNG supplier Cheniere Energy.All are keen to sell more gas into what remains the world’s fastest growing LNG market-despite a recent slowdown,imports were still up 10% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2019-and said they would like to sign new LNG deals with companies run by the Zhejiang government,which wants more terminals built to aid hub growth.