| Liquified Natural gas or LNG, and Liquified Petroleum Gas or LPG has been in great demand all over the world. In China , where a massive percentage of the world's population resides, the short and long-term outlook for a demand and supply of LNG and LPG is looking about even.
The supply in some parts of China does not meet the demand. However in light of newer, cleaning-burning fuels, as predicted, the demand for LNG and LPG in China has reached a slow-down. As a matter of fact, many producers of the gases are using it instead to make more value-added products such as ethylene, instead of selling it as an end product. One argument against the use of LNG and LPG in China is the fact that it is more expensive and less practical. It is harder to store and transport. It is also not a very clean-burning fuel. Last year, the use of LNG and LPG in China gave way to a consumption of over 20 million metric tons, however high that number seems, it is down more than 20% from the 1990's. The country is following the rest of the world's trend in ‘going green' and conserving energy.
The consumption of natural gas by the Chinese is expected to expand by over 25% over the next 5 years. However, there are plans for China to build more LNG terminals by the year 2010 to deal with the current demand. Even though in the short-term future, the use of LNG and LPG looks to be stable and still in demand, future predictions for the gases limit the growth of the LNG and LPG in China.
Obviously, with any relatively new product being brought into the marketplace there are risks and returns, as with the use of LNG and LPG in China. The pros of using natural gas far outweigh the cons, though and we need to find better ways to save and conserve energy in the future, if we want to have one.
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