China tops North America in LNG transport fuels growth: Shell

By EDUARD GISMATULLIN
Bloomberg

The liquefied-gas-for-transport market is growing faster in China than in North America, because more Chinese drivers are buying new vehicles that don’t have to be retrofitted, according to Royal Dutch Shell.

Shell, one of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas producers, has trimmed its pilot Green Corridor project in Canada to fuel long-haul trucks with the chilled fuel.

The company is examining opportunities to develop the business in China, which already has more than 100,000 vehicles running on LNG, said John Abbott, a Shell refining director.

“Each market will be moving at a different speed,” Abbott told reporters in London. China is “one of the markets that’s moving very fast.” In North America, “they’ll either have to pay retrofitting costs or will have to wait until the vehicle retires,” he said.

China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, has the potential to double the number of cars, trucks and buses fueled by natural gas, including compressed fuel, to 3.8 million by 2020, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That makes the country the fastest-growing market for the less-polluting motor fuels.

Shell is also developing plans to use LNG to power vehicles and ships in Europe. The company, based in The Hague, had planned to supply the equivalent of about 4% of its 2012 production to power engines with the chilled fuel through the next decade. Shell expected global demand for LNG to rise five times to 500 million metric tpy in 2025 from 2000.

Shell hasn’t “developed detailed plans” yet, “but clearly LNG in China is an important opportunity for us,” Abbott said.

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