An outlook analysis on China's natural gas consumption forecast by 2035: Applying a seasonal forecasting method

Abstract

The proposed targets to achieve peak carbon before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060 would require China to accelerate the development of natural gas infrastructure. The forecasted future of natural gas consumption in China will not only help learn about the future usage of natural gas but also guide government departments to conduct more scientific planning and management of natural gas production and pipeline channels. Therefore, this paper fully considers the characteristics of natural gas consumption affected by seasonal factors and uses the 2018–2021 quarterly natural gas consumption time-series data to analyze whether natural gas consumption contains trends and seasonality. It is noticeable that seasons impact China's natural gas consumption, so the moving average method is applied to calculate the seasonal index. Based on this, China's natural gas consumption from 2022 to 2035 is forecasted. As results show, China's gas consumption will continue to grow over the next 14 years but at a slower rate. By 2035, it will double from the 2021 level, reaching 765.4 billion cubic meters, but the growth rate will drop to below 4%, entering a period of low growth. Finally, the paper illustrates current situation of natural gas development combined with rationalized suggestions for future natural gas production and energy security in China.