中國天然氣短缺蔓延至南方

Gas shortages are spreading to industrial sectors in southern and western China after authorities in Beijing diverted the fuel to the north to resolve an LNG shortfall caused by a botched effort to cut coal use.

天然氣短缺正蔓延至中國南部和西部的工業(yè)部門。此前，北京當局將天然氣轉移至中國北方，以解決拙劣的限煤努力造成的液化天然氣(LNG)短缺。

Chemicals producers in Sichuan and Chongqing, in China’s south-west, have been ordered to shut or curtail production until March, heightening the economic impact of the disruption.

在中國西南的四川和重慶，化學品生產商已被下令在明年3月前停產或減產，這加劇了這場動蕩造成的經濟影響。

The National Energy Administration has taken over gas allocation from state-owned oil companies in an effort to co-ordinate an increasingly complex set of diversions to mitigate the shortfall.

中國國家能源局已從國有石油公司手中接過了天然氣分配工作，以協(xié)調為緩解這種短缺而進行的、日益復雜的天然氣調配。

“The emergency response to manage gas flow now is essentially a bureaucrat-dispatched system,” said Zhou Xizhou, managing director for Asia gas and power at IHS Markit.

IHS Markit亞洲天然氣和電力董事總經理周希舟說：“現(xiàn)在對天然氣流向管理的緊急應對基本上是一個由官僚來調配的體系。”

Beijing moved to cap gas prices in late-November after demand jumped in northern China following the onset of cold weather.

隨著寒冷天氣來臨，中國北方對天然氣的需求激增，北京方面在11月末采取行動限制天然氣價格。

The Guangdong Oil & Gas Association warned that shortages could also occur in China’s export-orientated south if colder weather coincided with increased diversions to the north. Gas was also being diverted from two coal-dependent provinces to the west towards the region around Beijing.

廣東油氣商會(Guangdong Oil & Gas Association)警告稱，如果天氣變得更加寒冷，與此同時向北方的調氣增多，那么以出口為導向的中國南方也可能出現(xiàn)天然氣短缺。目前，當局還在把西部兩個依賴煤炭的省份的天然氣調往環(huán)京地區(qū)。

In the north-eastern province of Shanxi, where trucking companies were encouraged to switch to gas a few years ago, the price per litre has jumped and vehicles that are still operating face long refuelling lines.

在山西省，幾年前當?shù)卦膭羁ㄜ囘\輸企業(yè)“油改氣”，現(xiàn)在每公升天然氣價格已經跳漲，還在運營的車輛要加氣得排長隊。

“All [our] trucks that run on natural gas have been stopped, as natural gas is now more expensive than diesel,” said an executive at a Chinese company with a national truck network. “You would be making a loss on every deal.”

“(我們的)所有燒天然氣的卡車都停運了，因為現(xiàn)在天然氣比柴油貴。”一家在全國擁有運營網(wǎng)絡的卡車運輸公司的一名高管說，“每跑一單都會賠錢。”

The problem stems from a 2013 plan aimed at relieving Beijing’s pollution by moving heavy industry out of the surrounding North China Plain, converting smaller industrial users from coal-fired boilers to gas or the power grid and curbing coal-powered home heating.

這個問題源自2013年的一項計劃。該計劃旨在緩解北京的污染，措施包括將重工業(yè)從華北平原遷出，對小型工業(yè)企業(yè)的燃煤鍋爐實施“煤改氣”或“煤改電”改造，以及限制居民住宅燃煤取暖。

However, some environmental inspectors and local government teams have removed boilers and home heating stoves before the replacement gas infrastructure was installed.

然而，在替換的天然氣基礎設施安裝好前，一些環(huán)保督察人員和地方政府的小組就拆除了燃煤鍋爐和家用取暖煤爐。

Beijing last week relented and allowed coal to be burnt in rural homes after millions of households were left without heat in winter weather. It has also restarted an emergency coal-fired power plant after earlier switching its relatively clean-burning coal-fired plants to power systems that run on gas made from coal.

在數(shù)百萬家庭面臨在冬天無法取暖的困境后，上周北京方面有所放松，允許農村家庭燃煤取暖。早些時候一些使用相對清潔煤炭的火電廠轉變?yōu)槭褂妹褐铺烊粴獾陌l(fā)電系統(tǒng)后，北京方面現(xiàn)在已重新啟動了一個應急燃煤電廠。

The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday approved its first corporate lending — a $250m loan that will allow state-owned Beijing Gas Group to extend gas pipeline infrastructure to roughly 217,000 households around Beijing by 2021.

中國牽頭的亞洲基礎設施投資銀行(Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank)周一批準了第一筆企業(yè)貸款——對國有的北京燃氣集團(Beijing Gas Group)發(fā)放一筆2.5億美元的貸款，用于擴建天然氣管道基礎設施，在2021年前覆蓋北京郊區(qū)約21.7萬個家庭。

Another factor contributing to the shortages is the broad economic recovery in northern China, after a slump in growth from 2012-2016 that went unrecognised in official GDP statistics and may have contributed to planners’ miscalculation of how much coal would need to be substituted by gas.

另外一個導致天然氣短缺的因素是中國北方整體的經濟復蘇。2012年至2016年的經濟增速放緩或許導致規(guī)劃者誤判了到底有多少煤需要替換成天然氣。

The planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, is also in charge of China’s international negotiations to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Beijing has been keen to claim international leadership in the effort to avert climate change after the Trump administration vowed to pull the US out of commitments made in Paris, two years ago this week.

與此同時，規(guī)劃機構國家發(fā)改委正在負責與中國限制二氧化碳和其他溫室氣體排放有關的國際協(xié)商。在特朗普(Trump)政府發(fā)誓讓美國退出在兩年前的這周達成的巴黎氣候協(xié)定后，北京方面渴望在阻止氣候變化的努力中扮演國際領導角色。

While China’s economic slowdown helped keep global emissions flat in the past few years, they are expected to rise 2 per cent this year after the economic recovery pushed up coal usage.

盡管中國的經濟放緩在過去幾年幫助全球排放量保持穩(wěn)定，但在中國的經濟復蘇導致煤炭使用量增長后，預計今年的全球排放量將上升2%。

Additional reporting by Emily Feng Emily Feng補充報道