LPG market demand continues to rise, and the first-level LPG gas storage industry has good development prospects

LPG gas warehouse is an important storage facility for LPG and plays an important role in the LPG industry chain. As the demand for LPG in civil combustion and industrial applications has increased in recent years, the demand for LPG gas storage continues to grow. LPG is a clean and efficient energy with high application demand in new energy vehicles, gas and industry. With the changes in the energy structure in recent years, the LPG market demand has continued to rise, from 54.21 million tons in 2017 to 2021 of 71.24 million tons.

my country’s LPG is mainly used in the field of civil combustion. Although in recent years, driven by the development of the new energy vehicle industry, the proportion of civil combustion has been shrinking, the overall proportion is still more than half. Benefiting from the support of national policies for natural gas, natural gas has rapidly seized the market in the civil combustion field, and the share of LPG in the civil market will continue to shrink in the future. In the chemical industry, LPG is mainly used for deep processing. With the commissioning of deep processing projects such as PDH and alkylation, the demand for LPG continues to rise. At present, my country’s LPG applications in the chemical industry account for a small proportion, and there is still a large gap compared with the global 32%. There is huge room for improvement in the future.

According to the “China LPG Gas Storage Industry Market Supply and Demand Status and Development Trend Forecast Report 2022-2026” released by the Industrial Research Center, LPG gas storage can be divided into first-level gas storage and second-level gas storage. Currently, there are 30 first-level gas storages in operation in China, with a total storage capacity of 5.2 million cubic meters. The primary gas storage capacity is relatively high and is more suitable for the domestic market. With the growth of domestic LPG consumption demand, the demand for LPG gas storage in my country is rising. In 2020, the number of primary LPG gas storages planned to be built in my country is 16, with a capacity of approximately 5.3 million cubic meters.

The number of secondary LPG gas storages in my country is about 55, but the storage capacity is low, only 550,000 cubic meters, mainly distributed in East China, Shandong, South China and Central China. In addition to the LPG gas storages built on the ground, my country also has 4 underground LPG gas storages located in Shandong, Guangdong and other regions. Underground LPG gas storage has a large single-seat capacity, and the smallest storage capacity is about 200,000 cubic meters. The construction cost of underground LPG gas storage is high and the technical requirements are strict. Currently, there are only a small number of them.

The secondary LPG gas warehouse mainly meets the fuel demand. Since the LPG fuel demand market is not optimistic, the future investment prospects of the secondary gas warehouse are not optimistic, and the construction space of the primary gas warehouse is large. In terms of demand, LPG is mainly used for fuel demand in South China, while in East China and Shandong it is mainly used for deep processing. Therefore, the demand for LPG in this region will be higher in the future, and LPG gas storage has greater development potential in this field.

Industry analysts said that benefiting from the maturity of domestic LPG deep processing technology and the establishment of related projects in recent years, the demand for LPG continues to rise. It is beneficial to the development of LPG gas storage industry. There are two types of LPG gas storage: primary and secondary. The secondary LPG gas storage has a smaller capacity and mainly meets the needs of the civil combustion field and has less potential for future development. The first-level LPG gas storage has a larger capacity and is used in industrial processing and production. , the future development prospects are good.