China pumped natural gas at the highest rate since 2014 in December 2017 in an attempt to make up for shortages of the fuel in the northern parts of the country amid harsh winter weather, China’s national statistics authority said today. The daily average reached 13.6 billion cubic meters, versus 12.6 billion cubic meters in November. The full-2017 total hence jumped by 8.5 percent on an annual basis to 147.4 billion cubic meters. Sinopec alone reported a 19-percent annual increase in its natural gas production last year. As part of its fight against pollution, Beijing ordered a switch from central heating, supplied by coal-fired plants, to gas heating. The switch affected millions of households and businesses in northern China, but the government’s ambitious pollution-tackling plans failed to factor in challenges such as demand and lack of adequate transport infrastructure for gas. As a result, state companies had to urgently […]