Heavy fog blanketed several cities, especially those in eastern China from Saturday to Sunday, reducing visibility to less than 50 meters in some areas and causing the closure of many expressways.
The National Meteorological Center maintained its yellow alert for foggy weather on Sunday, the third severest in China's four-tier weather warning system that is color-coded with red, orange, yellow and blue.
In Tongcheng City, east China's Anhui Province, dense fog enveloped the entire downtown area, making traffic lights nearly invisible to drivers. As a result, the Tongcheng entrance of the Hefei-Anqing Expressway was temporarily closed at 04:00 Sunday, with police directing drivers to alternate routes.
By around 09:00, as the fog began to dissipate, the affected sections of the expressway were gradually reopened, and normal traffic resumed.
The heavy fog also led to the closure of expressways in other cities across east China's Jiangsu Province, including Nantong, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou.
In Qidong, a county-level city in Nantong, local authorities issued an orange alert for the fog, as visibility dropped below 50 meters. City buses were temporarily suspended due to the hazardous conditions.
By 09:00 on Sunday, the fog gradually cleared, allowing bus services to resume. Expressways in Jiangsu that had been affected by the fog were also gradually reopened.
Dense fog causes closure of expressways across multiple Chinese cities
China's natural gas production is projected to reach 300 billion cubic meters by 2030, according to a development report released in Beijing.
The report, covering the development of China's oil and gas industry during the country's 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–2025), said proven geological reserves rose by 7 billion tons of oil and 7 trillion cubic meters of gas, up 43 percent and 40 percent respectively from the previous five-year period. Oil and gas production hit record highs.
"The oil output is likely to reach between 215 and 216 million tons this year. Natural gas has seen major growth during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–2025), with annual domestic output rising by nearly 13 billion cubic meters. In the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), we expect annual increases of more than 10 billion cubic meters, reaching 300 billion cubic meters around 2030," said Wu Mouyuan, deputy director of the Economics and Technology Research Institute of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
The report forecast that China's energy structure will feature less coal, stable oil and gas, and rising non-fossil fuels over the next decade.
By 2060, fossil fuels are expected to account for 23 percent of the energy mix, hydropower and nuclear 19 percent, wind 25 percent, and solar 30 percent, the report said.
"In the next five years, through the integrated development of fossil energy and renewables, we will achieve a heathy, stable, and resilient energy system. Clean energy will continue to grow rapidly. More than 90 percent of renewable energy will be consumed via electricity, so the electrification at end-use sectors is a key direction of transformation in the future," said Wu.
With the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and new high-energy industries, China's power demand will exceed 20 trillion kilowatt hours by 2060, double the 2025 level. Electrification at end-use sectors is expected to reach 62 percent, rising by nearly one percentage point annually, the report projected.
China to see gas output hitting 300 bcm by 2030: report
