CHINA, the world's second-biggest energy user, plans to increase natural gas production by 50 percent from last year's levels by 2010 as demand for the cleaner-burning fuel increases.
Natural gas output will rise to 92 billion cubic meters, Jiang Jinchu, vice president of China's Petroleum Enterprise Association, said at the Asia Gas Congress in Beijing yesterday.
The world's biggest emitter of harmful greenhouse gases wants to use gas for 5.3 percent of its total energy consumption by 2010 to reduce the reliance on oil and coal, Bloomberg News reported.
China's economy continued to surge, spurring energy consumption.
The nation's gas use will rise 10 percent a year to 140 billion cubic meters by 2012, Tang Yali, vice president of the gas and pipeline unit at PetroChina Co, said.