According to official of China National Petroleum Corporation parent of China largest oil and gas producer PetroChina the company expects to supply an additional one billion cubic meters of natural gas to China's market from Central Asia this winter.

The official said that CNPC is making efforts to purchase liquefied natural gas from overseas spot markets in order to ease a domestic supply shortage. Meanwhile, CNPC issued an internal notice calling for additional efforts to explore the growth potential of oil and gas fields, optimizing the operation of pipeline networks and demand management and upping the oversight of key gas fields and pipelines.

CNPC will give priority to the civil and public sectors as well as major cities and areas, especially those in northern China. Partial production capacities with facilities in Lanzhou Petrochemical, Ningxia Petrochemical and other CNPC subsidiaries will be cut or suspended for some time.

CNPC will also strengthen its cooperation with local governments to make prediction on gas demand and improve the demand side management.

(Sourced from www.chinamining.org)