LPG prices in South and East China rose this week after an explosion at a major LPG supply plant and a rise in crude oil prices early in the week, domestic trade sources said Friday, April 10. Dragon Aromatics' plant in Gulei, Fujian province, is not expected to be able to supply LPG for several months after an explosion and fire Monday evening.
China has plans to lay more than 20,000 km of long-distance gas pipelines, build 11 gas storage bases and construct eight LNG receiving terminals from 2016 to 2020, said Han Jingkuan, vice president of the PetroChina Planning and Engineering Institute, at a recent conference in Beijing.
China is the biggest consumer of LPG, a compressed mix of propane and butane, used for heating and transport, and now increasingly being considered for making petrochemicals.As demand in China soars, the U.S.shale boom has led to a surge in production of LPG, which is bringing down global prices and challenging established suppliers in the Middle East.Washington restricts exports of crude and has only slowly opening up liquefied natural gas shipments for energy security reasons, but there are no such limits on LPG sales.
