In 2021, the mainland is limitedly affected by the epidemic, the economic development is stable, the urbanization rate is getting faster and faster, cooking, heating, chemicals, etc. all need a lot of natural gas, and the demand is very strong. In addition to its own Gama production, imports in 2021 increased by 19.9% over 2020 to 121.3 million tons. Affected by the European gas crisis, natural gas prices have grown rapidly, with imports spending 360.1 billion yuan, an increase of 56.3% over 2020.
Mainland natural gas imports and exporters have always signed long-term supply agreements, although prices have increased, all within the scope of the agreement. The price is several times higher than in Europe, which is very favorable. Their supply is affected by weather, politics and other aspects, many supply channels, supply is temporarily increased, not a long-term agreement before the price increase, affected by speculation, price fluctuations are impossible.
However, the profits of many energy companies in Europe and the United States have increased a lot. For example, U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil operated $84.965 billion in operating income in the fourth quarter of 2021, an increase of 82.6% from $46.54 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020. Profit reached $8.87 billion, compared to a loss of $20.07 billion in the same period last year.
Profits are at their highest in 7 years, but what happened 7 years ago? In 2015, the Islamic State rebelled and occupied a large amount of land in Iraq and Syria, affecting oil and gas production in the Middle East, resulting in soaring prices.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is gaseous natural gas after pressurization liquefaction, with LNG ships, or tanker storage for transportation, storage, the volume is the same mass gaseous natural gas 1/625, LNG shipping volume is much more than the pipeline. Now liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships can transport tens of thousands of tons of LNG at a time. The "Pan Asia" LNG ship produced by the Hudong Shipyard in the mainland can transport 80,000 tons of LNG at a time.
Now Australia, Qatar, the United States is the top three in global LNG production, but also the top three in export, ordered a large number of LNG ships from China and South Korea, mainly exported to the Asia-Pacific region, of course, the United States is a rising star, in the Asia-Pacific contract is not as much as Australia Qatar, exports to Europe are far more than Australia Qatar.
In 2021, the mainland imported liquid natural gas (LNG) accounted for 78.93 million tons of natural gas imports, an increase of 18.3% over 2020, surpassing Japan to become the world's largest LNG importer. Australia has the most, accounting for 39%, the United States second, accounting for 11%, followed by Qatar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia and so on. About 278 billion yuan was spent, an increase of 90.1% over 2020.
LNG ships can be sent directly to the eastern coastal ports, which are densely populated with petrochemical areas, and the famous seven petrochemical areas are distributed from north to south coast. The eastern coast is the most densely populated place in mainland cities, with urban agglomerations such as the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Rim, which can be transported by pipelines or tank trucks after decompression.
In terms of gaseous natural gas, 42.43 million tons of imports will be imported in 2021, an increase of 22.9% over 2020. The import value is about 73.5 billion yuan, an increase of 15.6% over 2020. It shows that pipeline gas is still very cost-effective, the transportation is cheap, the price increase is limited, they come from Turkmenistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Myanmar and other countries. Turkmenistan is now the continent's largest source of gaseous gas imports, with Russia having the second largest.
Although many overland pipelines are under construction, but limited to the limited volume of exporting countries, the rise in pipeline gas imports is unlikely to exceed LNG for a long time. We are already the largest natural gas export destination in Turkmenistan, kazakhstan's main supply direction in Europe, Myanmar and other other countries have limited reserves and limited supply.
At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Putin came to Beijing to participate in the opening ceremony, bringing a big order. Russia's state-owned gas industry company signed an agreement with PetroChina to supply 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the mainland every year through the Far East route, and the full capacity will reach 48 billion cubic meters per year after arrival, which will narrow the gap with Turkmenistan's total exports to China.
Now that Russia has developed Arctic oil and gas, built nuclear-powered icebreakers, and purchased a large number of LNG ships, it is presumably that the amount of LNG exported to the mainland will come up in the future.
The demand for natural gas is increasing, the expansion of channels is the last word, the Middle East Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and other countries in the world's leading reserves, has been continuously put into development, import potential from these areas is very large.