MILAN, Apr 21 (Class Editori) — China is betting heavily on gas, whose consumption by 2025 is expected to amount to more than 460 billion cubic meters, almost doubling the consumption of 2018 (270 billion cubic meters). It will be distributed in the country by a system of pipeline infrastructure, for which 210,000 kilometers of oil and gas pipes will be needed by 2025, a production easily accessible by the domestic industry.
These data were provided by Matteo Tanteri, President and CEO of Snam China, during a webinar organized in recent days by the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce to illustrate in detail the targets of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for the energy sector and its resulting commercial implications.
"The target that appears more surprising is the natural gas storage capacity, very low today because it reaches 15 billion cubic meters, but which is expected to hit 55-60 billion cubic meters by 2025: good news also for Europe and Italy," Tanteri added, who is in China to promote the activity of Snam particularly in storage infrastructure, where the Group is an absolute leader in the most advanced technologies.
"As for hydrogen, the Chinese government prepared a dedicated plan: the targets are rather conservative while the emphasis is more on the infrastructures involved", the Manager added. "In recent months, many Chinese regions have launched their specific plans on hydrogen that appear more innovative —in particular that of Inner Mongolia— than the national one, which however provides for the use of green hydrogen rather than blue hydrogen, extracted from non-renewable energy sources, such as gas", Tanteri concluded.
The guidance for the transition to decarbonization was instead the focus of the intervention by Guido Giacconi, Co-Founder and President of In3act, according to whom China set itself a rather limited period of time to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060, only 30 years after the expected carbon peak (2030).
Timelines which appear rather difficult to meet but which fully reflect the country's willingness to achieve decarbonization and its attention in fighting climate change. According to the targets, by 2025 the use of renewable energies will be 20%, rising to 25% in 2030 and reaching 80% in 2060; CO2 emissions will drop by 18% in 2025 (compared to 2020) and by 65% in 2030 (compared to 2005), while the energy consumed at a national level in 2025 will decrease by 13.5% compared to the previous five years and will continue to drop —without a precise indication in terms of numbers— in the following years.
In addition, a forest cover of 24% is expected in 2025 and 25% in 2030. There is a statement according to which "China will have fully established a green, low-carbon and circular economy and a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system" in 2060, without indicating specific targets.
"In the 14th Five-Year Plan, the energy issue covers 14 points and emphasizes how the decarbonization process must not in any way lead to a crisis in the country, for which energy security is still the sole priority," Giacconi observed. "This explains why the targets to be achieved by 2025 appear rather bland and absolutely not in line with the alleged complete decarbonization of 2060, which is confirmed in the document”.
The 14 points mentioned include statements of principle such as the promotion of a collective ecological "consciousness" or the reduction of the gap between urban and rural areas as well as strategic goals including the development of new biomass and fuels, keeping food security as the priority, the acceleration in the wide use of renewable energies —while coal is still maintained— and the further opening to foreign markets, though always under government control.
Teti Licursi, who works at Eni Representative Office in Beijing, stressed that the Five-Year Plan for the energy sector aims to build a modern energy system, by accelerating a series of processes already put in place to modernize the energy system, which means an increasingly "clean, low-carbon, safe, highly efficient" model. "The aspect of sustainability is therefore very prominent, in line with the official narrative of the Party's targets and seems to be one of the founding topics of the energy system in the long term," Licursi commented, "with a wider time range: in 2035 carbon emissions are expected to drop dramatically following the 2030 peak and this will certainly require the support of companies specialized in energy transition".
In this scenario, Eni foresees favorable business prospects in China, thanks to the excellence it has achieved on a global scale in terms of biorefineries, i.e., the transformation of traditional refineries into eco-friendly plants such as the one in Porto Marghera, which in 2014 was the first biorefinery in the world, followed by the one in Gela in 2019.
(Source:Class Editori)
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