China is now serving as an important player in the international trade of natural gas Zhong Feiteng, a senior resarcher in the National Institute of International Strategt at the Chinese Academy of School Scienes By ZHONG FEITENG The Belt and Road Initiative,proposed by the Chinese government in 2013,aims to drive global economic growth and highlights the interconnectivity of infrastructure. Nowadays,many major countries acknowledge the importance of green development and believe that natural gas is one of the core energies to boost it.Northeast Asia has taken a global lead in clean energy and green growth,strengthening cooperation between China,Japan and South Korea in this field to help promote the construction of a “green Silk Road”. Last year,northern China witnessed a severe imbalance between the supply and demand of natural gas,creating the biggest energy crisis China has ever encountered since it became a net importer of natural gas in 2007. In contrast to the United States and European countries which suffered a major setback early in the 1970s,China has never dealt with such a serious energy crisis over a long period.In response,it resorted to an unprecedented expansion in liquefied natural gas imports to reduce the imbalance. China is now serving as an important player in the international trade of natural gas. It surpassed South Korea in 2013 to become the second-biggest importer in Asia,according to the US Energy Information Administration. The EIA also predicted that China would become the world’s largest natural gas importer in 2021,surpassing Japan,and will maintain that status until 2050. Last year marked a watershed in the global pattern of natural gas exports.The United States led the world in terms of increased natural gas exports,with total volumes of pipeline and liquefied natural gas reaching 30.5 billion cubic meters.Russia retained its leading position in total natural gas exports,accounting for 20.4 percent of the world’s total export volume. Russia exports its natural gas mainly to the European countries.In 2017,almost 88 percent of the country’s pipeline natural gas was exported to the continent,increasing nearly 20 billion cu m year-on-year. According to statistics from British energy major BP,China last year imported pipeline natural gas from Turkmenistan,Uzbekistan,Kazakhstan and Indonesia,and imported liquefied natural gas mainly from 19 countries and regions,of which Algeria,Angola and Equatorial Guinea were new sources.Turkmenistan,for example,contributed 34.5 percent to China’s total pipeline natural gas imports and nearly 60 percent to its total liquefied natural gas imports. The China-Russia East-Route Natural Gas Pipeline,which will begin commercial operations at the end of 2020,is expected to transport up to 38 billion cu m of gas annually to China. Viewed from the perspective of energy diversification,liquefied natural gas has more broad development prospects than pipeline gas.Considering the market turbulence in China’s natural gas supply last year caused by its high dependence on Turkmen exports,the country should make more efforts in developing offshore natural gas projects and consider it an important direction when implementing the Belt and Road Initiative. As for liquefied natural gas imports,the important supply sources for Japan and South Korea are similar to those of China.One main importing country to South Korea is Oman,in addition to Qatar and Australia,while Japan’s imports from Oman is also significantly higher than China’s.Brunei is another country which exports more liquefied natural gas to Japan and South Korea than to China. According to BP,Northeast Asian countries are main destinations for Southeast Asian, Australian and New Zealand natural gas exports,so they share a common interest in promoting offshore energy projects and related activities. China should actively enhance its energy cooperation with Japan and South Korea,for the latter two attach great importance to the development of clean energy.There is also a possibility that the China-Russia East-Route Natural Gas Pipeline will connect Japan and South Korea in the future. The author is a senior researcher in the National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. A ship of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) BGP carries out deep sea operations. CNPC