The Financial Times reports that “rising incomes, rapid urbanisation and concerns over the toxic smog that enshrouds many of China’s cities is driving the country away from coal and oil and towards natural gas.”  

“Gas usage has risen almost sevenfold over the past 13 years to 168bn cubic metres (bcm) and China is now the third-largest consumer in the world after the US and Russia.”  

“Further increases are expected. China’s power, industrial and transport sectors are forecast to drive demand to 315bcm by 2019, according to the International Energy Agency, the wealthy nations’ energy watchdog and the Chinese government has set its sights even higher.”  

“But uncertainty remains about the pace of growth going into the next decade.”