Hong Kong-based Towngas intends to increase its natural gas storage capacities in mainland China by 1.1.5 bcm in 2026. To do so, the company plans to build 10 underground reservoirs with a combined capacity of 453 mcm in a first phase expected to be achieved by 2023. In a second phase, expected in 2026, 15 storage facilities with a total capacity of 701 mcm will be built. Located in the cities of Changzhou and Yixing (Jiangsu province, close to Nanjing) in eastern China, the storage facilities will be linked to the pipelines of state-owned oil and gas companies PetroChina and Sinopec. Towngas already owns a gas reservoir in Changzhou city. It started operations in October 2018, with a capacity of 89 mcm, and will be expanded to 160 mcm by the end-2019.
For the year 2019, Towngas intends to increase its volumes sold to city gas customers in mainland China by more than 15% to 26 bcm. In 2018, China was the world’s second largest importer of LNG after Japan, but the country lacks of gas storage capacity to balance fluctuations in demand during summer and winter.