China plans to increase gas supplies to reduce pollution. That means more efforts in domestic exploration and imports of gas.

Expanding China’s natural gas supply is one of the important steps in curbing air pollution because the fuel emits much less pollutants than burning coal.

Oil and gas company CNOOC is increasing spending on exploration and speeding up the construction of pipelines and storage facilities. It’s also expanding imports to maximize gas supplies.

This liquified natural gas receiving terminal behind me is the latest addition to CNOOC’s five other terminals in China and is its first one above the long river. Since it started operating last December, this terminal has already supplied natural gas equivalent to 1.5 million family’s usage for an entire year. The utility’s goal is to substitute the traditional usage of coal in order to reduce air pollution in China’s north and eastern regions.

China uses coal for about two-thirds of its energy and is the world’s biggest carbon emitter. President Xi Jinping called pollution the “most prominent” issue faced by Beijing. Meanwhile, the president of CNOOC -- Luo Weizhong -- says that his company will increase its supply of gas in order to replace coal.

China plans to continue with its natural gas pricing reforms as current gas prices are much under market value. Hence, there will be more incentives for producers like CNOOC to accelerate their natural gas projects in order to meet rising demand.