PATH EXPLORATION FOR ADVANCING THE GASYUAN STRATEGY

Abstract

This paper makes in depth analyses of the market impetus and political logic for the formation of gasyuan. From a market perspective, the formation of gasyuan stems from the push behind supply demand imbalances in the natural gas market and the concentration of its comparative advantages. The main political logic lies in the fact that natural gas, as a
determinant of the energy era of gas, bears both financial and power attributes. Based on
such basic conditions, the article investigates the feasibility of the Gasyuan Strategy, which
is reflected by the following three aspects: (I) Stable growth of gas trade in the future will
become a carrier of renminbi’s internationalization; (II) LNG development offers more
conveniences for gas trade and conditions for global gas trade; (III) China’s advantageous
economic and geographic conditions facilitate the establishment of a regional or global
gas trade center.
The concrete measures needed to be taken in the process of pushing the Gasyuan
Strategy, in particular: establishing a Northeast Asian gas trading center; steadily
advancing the reform of the domestic oil and gas industry; promoting construction of
gas pipeline facilities and interconnectivity in Northeast Asia and Russia, etc. Despite
inadequate politically mutual trust and difficulties to coordinate economic interests between the three countries in Northeast Asian (China, Japan, the ROK), China is still likely to gradually advance cooperation with Japan and the ROK in various fields and set up a regional gas trading market to lay a solid foundation for the implementation of the Gasyuan Strategy.