The following presentation was made at IPWeek on February 25, 2021.
Tze San Koh
ExxonMobil, President, China Gas Marketing
IP Week, Feb. 25, 2021
Transcript:
Sure,
thank you, Tim. And hello everybody. And since we are still within the 15 days of Chinese New Year, and I know many people are dialing in from China and around the world that celebrate Chinese New Year. So, [happy Chinese New Year spoken in
Chinese].
Now, close to my heart right in China itself, China is the largest energy consumer in the world, displaying a massive energy demand that is
projected to grow as the Chinese government focuses on bringing more of its citizens out of poverty and more towards the middle class. China is one of the few country that had register positive GDP growth in 2020 at 2.3%. Despite the pandemic and
economic slowdown, China whole year natural get demand increased due to natural gas environmental competitiveness versus coal. China LNG imports in 2020 register more than 10% increase to 67 MTA versus 2019. LNG growth is higher than overall average
nat- natural gas growth thanks to LNG cost competitiveness over other natural gas resources, like domestic gas, imported pipeline, especially in the coastal region.
The other thing to note is Chinas share of natural gas in its primary energy mix is only 8.3%, much lower than the global average of 24.8. So signifying
the growth potential. And on top of that recently the World Bank project China projected 2021 GDP growth at 7.9%. So from our perspective all signs indicate China natural gas, as well as LNG markets have recovered from
COVID-19 and will continue to grow in the future.
[Later]
Yeah, sure, so, you know, just before I talk about, you know, LNG, ExxonMobil LNG China, I would just say that, you know, ExxonMobil has been in China for
more than 128 years. And from an LNG perspective, we have been among the first to actually import LNG into China itself. And so we had spoke to, you know, the three NOC, and I see that Sinopec, you know, is on the line. So theres a key
customers of ours. And we are also reaching out to tier two customers which are the provincial energy company.
[Later]
So let me zoom in and be very specific to China because I think Ma Li gave a pretty good overview in terms of Asia. So let me now turn to China. I mean, China
presidency announcement during the UN General Assembly was, you know, I think everybody heard that, is that China aims to have CO2 emission peak before 2030. And then to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. As of now, coal accounted for about 58%
of China total energy consumption, and 66% of its electricity generation. And natural gas can provide air quality as well as greenhouse natural gas benefits compared to coal in a broad range of application. And the use of natural gas in power
generations plays an important role in reducing global emissions. And when we consider the whole lifecycle emission, natural gas emits up to about 60% lower greenhouse gases and produces significantly fewer air pollutants than coal for power
generation. Therefore, natural gas also provide, pro- provides a reliable source of power to supplement renewable energy, where wind or solar power is not available. That what you say, Tim, right, just natural
gas, LNG is a good friend of renewables.