Research on China's natural gas market based on Social Network Analysis

The centrality and importance of each province and each gas source varies greatly in the national natural gas market. In order to demonstrate the connection between the natural gas markets in various provinces, as well as the importance and centrality of each province and each gas source, the Social Network Analysis (SNA) was introduced to deeply analyze the changes of centrality, factions and relevancy of China's natural gas market from 2010 to 2018 (compared with 2005), the evolution of China's natural gas market network and the impact of the completion of China-Russia Eastern Gas Pipeline on China's natural gas market. The following suggestions were put forward: increasing the natural gas storage and production in provinces except Xinjiang and Shaanxi to avoid over-concentration of supply, accelerating the construction of large-scale trunk gas pipelines and "interconnection" projects to increase market connectivity between northeast, northwest and other regions and strengthening the planning and construction of gas pipelines flowing from "north to south" to reinforce the importance and connectivity of South and Central China in China's natural gas network. The analysis results can provide reference suggestions for the selection of key areas for natural gas market cultivation and longdistance pipeline construction in China in the future.