China: Enter the smokeless dragon

Part of China’s blue-sky strategy is the switch from coal to natural gas—with an unexpected impact on the global LNG market

Between 2015 and 2017, China's liquefied natural gas imports doubled. Pipeline gas imports more than doubled. Yet last winter China faced an unprecedented gas supply crisis that left homes, schools and hospitals without heating—prompting a scramble to divert gas from industry. The immediate cause of the crisis was an air pollution-prevention-and-control programme stipulating that coal-fired boilers in key regions should be replaced with gas-fired ones. The deadline, October 2017, coincided with the Communist Party's 19 th National Congress and so implementation was exceptionally forceful. In some places, coal boilers were ripped out before gas replacements were available. In others, the swit