The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was held on October 31 in Glasgow, UK, focusing on climate change. More economies have recently submitted new Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations. The pathways for attaining the Paris Agreement 1.5oC warming target will be further clarified, and actions will focus on climate financing, coal elimination, and nature-based solutions. In the context of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, China is, while achieving the all-round green and low-carbon transition, faced up with multiple pressures from the energy consumption mix in urgent need of transition from fossil energy to clean and low-carbon energy, from the highlighted importance of energy security, and from a number of pain points and difficulties in the low-carbon transition in the oil and gas industry. Traditional oil and gas companies are recommended to actively promote green and low-carbon transition by restructuring business models, innovating in management mechanisms, performing organizational reforms, optimizing oil and gas assets, and accelerating the development of new energy businesses.

With the global climate response being implemented at the national level, more than 120 countries and regions have proposed “carbon neutrality” targets, the global energy transition process has been accelerated as traditional oil and gas businessbased global oil companies face multiple environmental regulations and increasing carbon emission reduction pressure from governments, investors, and consumers, and low carbon transition strategies are drawing widespread concern. Based on an analysis of the global energy transition in the context of achieving carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions, this study focuses on the characteristics of the transition development of international oil companies in terms of decision-making environment, capital expenditure, production changes, production areas, asset optimization, cost control, production methods, strategic transformation, etc. On this basis, it proposes countermeasures for the development of China’s oil and gas industry, i.e., to firmly establish the main energy status of oil and gas, emphasize the combination of carbon emission reduction and carbon utilization, give priority to the integrated development of oil and gas with new energy, and realize green and low carbon transition driven by technological innovation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the past decade, China had developed rapidly in the natural gas industry and become one of the largest natural gas countries in the world. From 2009 to 2019, natural gas consumption in China had been growing rapidly with a compound annual growth rate of 13.1%, making it the world’s third largest consumer of natural gas now. The share of natural gas in primary energy consumption mix is constantly increasing and reaches 8.6% in 2020. Natural gas proved reserves in China grow at an compound annual growth rate of 8.9% during the past decade,ranking the 6th largest in the world in 2020. China’s natural gas production continued to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 7.5% from 2009 to 2019 and reached 100 billion cubic meters in 2011. At present, China is the world’s fourth largest producer of natural gas. China imports natural gas rapidly, being the world’s largest importer of natural gas since 2018. China gas import dependency rose rapidly in recent 10 years, closing to 45% in 2018, but it declined to about 43% in 2020. China’s natural gas consumption and production will continue to grow in the next 10-15 years, the growth rate decreases gradually, but the gas consumption could turn to decline after 2030. The future development of China’s natural gas also is full of challenge and uncertainty. Many factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, carbon neutrality strategy, technological progress and natural gas resource availability, will affect the development trend of natural gas in China.