China urges boost to natural gas output, imports

China has urged its big three energy producers to boost gas imports and output after a supply shortfall hit many parts of the country during an unusually early cold snap.

China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), Sinopec, and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) have been called on to "actively arrange imports to increase natural gas supply".

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the top economic planning agency, also said they must "continue the heavy-load production and exploit (output) potential by every possible means".

The call was issued in a statement posted on its website Wednesday.

Northern, southwestern and eastern regions of China were struck by a supply crunch as low temperatures, rain and snow storms began to sweep swathes of the country from early November, the NDRC said.

Northern parts of the country saw demand rise as much as 56 percent this month from a year ago, while in Hunan and Hubei provinces consumption surged 22 percent.

To quench the thirst in the east and southeast, CNPC will import at least 700 million cubic metres (24.5 billion cubic feet) of liquified natural gas from the spot market, state media said Thursday, citing the firm and government officials.

The firm said this was the first time it had imported the gas.

CNPC, the country's biggest oil and gas producer, has said northern China was facing a supply shortage of eight million cubic metres per day and the south up to six million cubic metres daily, according to the reports.

The shortfall will be "hard to alleviate" in the near term even though gas output jumped by eight percent in the first 10 months of the year, the NDRC statement said.