Nation's rapidly growing demand to impact global fundamentals, prices

The rapidly growing thirst for natural gas in China is set to transform the industry over the next few years, impacting global fundamentals and prices, China's domestic gas sector and international liquified natural gas supply agreements, analysts said.

"China's power sector's coal-to-gas conversion policies, GDP expansion and industrial recovery are driving the country's gas consumption to record highs," said Abache Abreu, an LNG analyst focusing on the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions for S&P Global Platts.

"With domestic output and pipeline imports unable to keep up, LNG imports will be increasingly needed to bridge this gap, especially in the densely populated coastal regions, which are more distant from gas fields and import pipelines."