China will subsidise shale-gas production to help boost domestic gas supplies, earmarked to underpin plans of the Beijing government plans to expand share of gas in the nation's energy mix. Subsidies of 0.4 yuan (6.4 cents) per cubic meter of shale gas will be offered for shale gas developed and consumed between 2012 and 2015, according to China's ministry of finance.
Rising LNG imports to India, and government efforts to form a national gas grid, will help gas generation to expand beyond its present 10 percent market share. LNG imports can help to boost India's gas supplies, provided that Indian buyers are prepared to pay high prices for attracting cargoes in the tight Pacific Basin, an analyst with India's Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) told Gas to Power Journal.
As Malaysia's government gears up to lifting subsidies on natural gas the market share of gas-fired power generation is bound to drop, forecasts Sarah Fairhurst of The Lantau Group. "Gas-fired power generation is likely to fall in Malaysia as it slowly lifts subsidies. Gas, which was heavily subsidized before, is now becoming more expensive and less economic," she told Gas to Power Journal.
Gas generation is expected play a bigger role in denting Brazil's need for peak load power supply, providing bottlenecks in the gas pipeline network will get resolved so that power companies can make full use of domestic gas reserves, according to a GlobalData report. Gas-fired power plants in Brazil are predominately dispatched as peaker plants, due to high fuel prices for natural gas compared with hydropower.
Power generation companies and industries in Singapore have committed to purchasing around 2.7 million tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG, S. Iswaran, second minister for home affairs and trade and industry said at the Asia Gas Summit. BG, appointed as the aggregator for importing the first 3 mtpa of LNG, has already achieved 90% of its franchise, he revealed.
Plans for an ASEAN power grid must proceed cautiously with one step at a time, says power analyst Sarah Fairhurst of The Lantau Group. "There are too many players trying to align too many interests," she told delegates at the Electricity Roundtable organised as part of the Singapore International Energy Week, referring to wide disparities among South-East Asian countries.
The share of gas generation in India, which at present is about 10%, is expected to rise as the government steps up efforts to form a national gas grid. Provisions in the Electricity Act such as open access to transmission and distribution network, recognition of power trading as a distinct activity, flexibility accorded to captive generating plants and provision of supply in rural areas will introduce and encourage competition in the electricity sector, an analyst with India's Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) told Gas to Power Journal.
The market share of natural gas in Germany's power generation mix is estimated to rise to 19%, the regulator BNA's estimated in a mid-range scenario, deemed more likely than a bullish or bearish case. The mid-range scenario anticipates installed capacity from gas-fired plants to surge from 26.5 GW in 2011 to 32.9 GW in 2023.
Unconventional gas, due to its estimated abundance, has improved energy security in the United States and started a process of gas displacing coal as the dominant power generation fuel. Europe needs to adapt regulation to foster shale gas drilling, as it needs unconventional gas to make up for depleting indigenous gas production and supply new-build gas-fired plants, says Morgan Bazilian, deputy director of the Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis in Colorado, USA.
South Korean energy companies, in line with the government's "Green Growth policy", have shifted towards generating more electricity from nuclear and renewable energy sources backed up by gas generation, analysts say. The government has also embarked on the liberalization of its electricity market to improve competition in the industry and encourage investment with the aim of increasing installed capacity.