Natural gas consumption is expected to account for 9 pct of China's total energy consumption in 2020, up from 3 pct currently, Zhang Weiping, senior economist with the China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) said.

Zhang told reporters at the Asia LNG Summit in Beijing that natural gas is currently in tight supply in the Asia-Pacific region, with prices expected to keep rising in the near future.

He said the reliability of liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply is the key problem for the industry.

Currently, only LNG terminals in Shanghai, Guangdong province in the south of the country and Fujian province in the southeast have stable LNG supplies. Terminals in other provinces, such as Zhejiang, Hainan and Hebei, have yet not secured their supplies of LNG.

Zhang said potential disruptions in Iranian supply add an element of uncertainty to two deals signed by Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC).

China and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in October 2004 involving Sinopec participation in developing Iran's Yadavaran oil field in exchange for 10 mln tons of Iranian LNG annually for 25 years. A final contract has not been signed.

Meanwhile, CNPC is in talks with Iran for the joint development of Block 14 of the offshore South Pars gas field