China unveils 2017-2021 winter clean heating plan - media

BEIJING (Reuters) - China announced on Sunday a five-year plan to convert northern Chinese cities to clean heating during the winter through to 2021, state media reported, amid a deepening heating crisis.

An unprecedented government campaign to switch millions of households and thousands of businesses from coal to natural gas in northern China this winter has backfired.

Severe natural gas shortages have sent prices soaring nationwide, hitting businesses and residents across China's industrial heartland.

The plan was jointly announced by 10 government agencies, including the state planning National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration, the online edition of Securities Times quoted the China Energy News as saying.

The plan covers 2017 through to 2021.

The government has made "concrete arrangements" regarding geothermal heating, biomass heating, solar heating, gas heating, electric heating, industrial waste heating, and clean coal-fired central heating, the Securities Times said.

Half of northern China would have converted to clean heating by 2019, reducing bulk coal burning by 74 million tonnes, it said.

It gave no further details.

Factories are closing or operating at reduced capacity, businesses are seeing profits shrink as supply chains are disrupted, and residents are struggling to keep warm in sub-zero temperatures without adequate heating at home or in classrooms, according to interviews conducted by Reuters across the region this month.

The campaign to convert coal to gas is part of long-running government efforts to clean the region's toxic air after decades of unbridled economic growth.

On Saturday, PetroChina began diverting nearly 7 million cubic metres of natural gas from the southern province of Guangdong to icy northern China to ease gas shortages, state television said on Sunday.

Chinese oil and gas major CNOOC had also started supplying some 3 million to 5 million cubic metres of natural gas per day from the South China Sea and its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Zhuhai city to fill the gap in Guangdong, it said.

The gas swap was organised by the NDRC.

Gas shortages also spread to Changsha city, capital of the southern province of Hunan. Households that have bought 1,500 cubic metres or more this year were limited to buying 15 cubic metres per day from Dec. 15 onwards, state television said.

The gas shortage in Changsha could exceed 60 million cubic metres this winter, it said.

(Reporting by Judy Hua and Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by Stephen Coates and Paul Tait)