Research on diversification and competition relationship of natural gas trade among China, Japan, South Korea and India

As a clean energy, the global demand for natural gas is rising.With the change of China’s energy consumption structure, the strategic position of natural gas has become increasingly prominent.However, due to the shortage of domestic natural gas supply, natural gas dependence has reached 45% in 2018.Based on the analysis of the status quo of global natural gas trade, this paper analyzes the diversification of natural gas import sources of four major natural gas demand countries in the Asia-Pacific region through H-index from 2008 to 2017, and discusses the competition index.The degree of competition among the four countries for the same natural gas import source shows that thanks to “the Belt and Road” Initiative, with the establishment of energy cooperation with Asia-Pacific countries, China’s natural gas import diversification is on the rise.But due to the high coincidence of natural gas import sources with Japan, South Korea and India, the competitive relationship is mainly concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.In order to ensure the safety of China’s natural gas supply, China should deepen its energy cooperation with neighboring natural gas exporting countries, diversify its natural gas import sources, and seek cooperation with major natural gas demand countries such as Japan, South Korea and India to create natural gas pricing center in the Asia-Pacific region, to jointly maintain a stable natural gas supply environment.