ABARE said demand from four east coast Chinese provinces could reach around 11-14 million tonnes a year by 2015, compared to the much-heralded Guangdong contract of 3.3 million tonnes a year.
A new east-west pipeline is expected to start delivering domestic gas into Shanghai this year, but this would not be able to meet all domestic demand and so China will have to look increasingly to imports to plug the gap, according to ABARE.
ABARE added competition to supply this market will be intense, but Australia's secure, reliable and high quality LNG industry would be well placed to compete.
