China and Japan: markets to watch

The article discusses the dependence of both China and Japan on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). Japan has imported LNG for some 30 years and now China looks like becoming a major importer of LNG. At present, neither country has an integrated gas grid but it seems they will eventually be linked by a pipeline. The number of new nuclear stations to be built in Japan by 2010 now looks like being five to seven, rather than the predicted 20. China has gas deposits in the Tarim Basin and made plans to bring the gas to markets through a 4200 km pipeline to be built at a cost of nearly five billion US dollars. However, China recently found gas in Inner Mongolia which is much closer to the potential markets than the Tarim Basin. As well as pipelines, China is planing a 3 million tpy LNG receiving terminal on its south coast near Hong Kong. In 1998, the Chinese government restructured the state-owned oil and gas industries into the China National Petroleum Company and the China Petrochemical Corporation. BP own 2.2% of PetroChina