Chevron Says China Is 'High' on List of Natural Gas Customers
2006-11-08 23:27 (New York)
By Wing-Gar Cheng and Ying Lou
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Chevron Corp., the second-largest U.S.oil company, expects China to be "very high" on the list of customers for its natural gas once supply becomes available, an executive from the company said.
"Chevron wants to be a part of China's future," Audie Setters, vice president at Chevron Global Gas, said in Beijing today. Chevron won't have its own supply of gas to offer China before 2012, so it is seeking third-party suppliers for sales to the world's second-largest energy consumer, he said.
Increased consumption by China, the world's fastest-growing major economy, has contributed to record energy prices and strains on supply of natural gas. Chevron is among companies seeking a share of demand for the fuel in China, where the government has a target to more than double use of gas to 8 percent of total energy needs in 2010 from about 3 percent now.
"The job is to be in the Chinese market and when supply is back on, China will be very high on the list" of customers for Chevron, Setters said at the China Gas Summit 2006. "We have to get ourselves ready for the future and we are laying the groundwork."
Chevron Global Gas opened an office in Beijing earlier this year, he said.
Additional supplies for China are likely to come from the Middle East, Setters said, declining to identify potential sellers.
Global natural gas supply will remain "tight" in the next six to eight years, Setters said. Chevron expects U.S. gas demand to increase by 2 percent a year, he said, without giving a period for the projection.
--Editor: Viljoen.
Story illustration: To graph China's energy production, see {CHENTTL GPO }. See {ETOP } for Bloomberg's top energy stories.
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Wing-Gar Cheng in Beijing at +86-10-6535-2311 or
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Ying Lou in Hong Kong at +852-2977-6642 or
ylou1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reinie Booysen at +65-6212-1154 or rbooysen@bloomberg.net