Ger area turning into smoke-free housing area www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. ‘Infrastructure center’, also known as service center, opened on November 12, in the ger area of 7th khoroo of Chingeltei district, Ulaanbaatar city. Specifically, over 200 households of the 7th khoroo have been connected to the main trunk infrastructure within the ‘Infrastructure center’ project.

National ₮ card renewed with EMV chip technology www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. Within its goal to develop the payment system, the Bank of Mongolia made its first step of bringing Mongolia’s national payment ₮ card into a new level or renewing it with EMV chip technology, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank through the ‘Payment System Modernization Project’.

Natural gas supply set to satisfy needs in key season www.chinadaily.com.cn

A natural gas supply crunch is unlikely to happen nationwide in the 2019-20 heating season, due to a slower increase in natural gas consumption, and strengthened supply capabilities arising from continuous domestic production growth, increased imports, and improved gas infrastructure, industry insiders said.

The country's annual natural gas output is expected to reach more than 170 billion cubic meters this year, increasing by more than 11 billion cubic meters, while it is putting more overseas natural gas in pipelines, Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday, citing an unidentified official of the National Development and Reform Commission.

The China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline project is expected to start operation in early December, and imports of overseas liquefied natural gas have seen rapid growth.

The official also emphasized the availability of cross-regional energy connectivity infrastructure such as the south-to-north natural gas transmission project and one that boosts supply for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from northeastern China.

China is expected to build a gas storage capacity of about 20 billion cubic meters this year, and at present, the gas storage facilities of the top three oil and gas companies have completed gas injection as planned, to ensure gas supplies during the heating season, the official said.

Zhao Xu, an oil and gas expert with the School of Economics and Management at China University of Petroleum (Beijing), said the total gas supply from domestic output and overseas imports will be around 320 billion cubic meters in the year, slightly surpassing the estimated yearly demand of 311 billion cubic meters, if estimated on the basis of the supply and demand growth curves from January to August.

"It is highly possible that this winter will be relatively warm due to the El Nino phenomenon, and the switch from coal to gas for heating in northern China has been carried out smoothly without haste, which all help ensure the balance between gas supply and demand," she said, adding that the gas crunch in 2017 was largely worsened by an unexpected sharp decrease in overseas supplies.

Xiong Wei, assistant director of the pipeline gas trading department at Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Exchange, emphasized that the ongoing decrease in China's gas consumption growth rate is likely to continue during the winter season, largely due to the slowed increase in industrial use.

From January to September, China consumed 216.6 billion cubic meters of gas, with a year-on-year growth of 10.1 percent, which was 7.4 percentage points less compared to last year.

On the contrary, China produced 126.3 billion cubic meters of gas in the first three quarters, increasing 10.9 percent year-on-year, which marked a milestone in that domestic gas output growth outstripped domestic gas consumption growth for the first time.

"Year-on-year as consumption growth rate this winter will be no more than 10 percent, and considering PetroChina's natural gas output this winter is likely to outpace that of last year, while gas supplies to northern regions from Sinopec and CNOOC for the heating season are expected to grow respectively by 1.18 billion and 1.5 billion cubic meters, the gas demand and supply is supposed to be balanced generally," he said, adding that the currently much lower imported LNG prices also contribute to increased supplies.

However, he warned that despite the highly likely supply and demand balance on a national level, regional restraints cannot be totally ruled out, especially if unexpected extreme cold weather occurs.

Both Xiong and Zhao said an imbalance in China's gas supply and demand is a long-term concern, as China lacks conventional natural gas resources.

They suggested more government incentives and financial support to be provided to develop unconventional natural gas resources.

Putin & Xi to launch strategic natural gas pipeline from Russia to China in December www.rt.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will take part in the launching ceremony of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, set to be held next month.
While the leaders will not be physically present at the event, they will join via a teleconference, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told media on Monday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the official ceremony will happen when the pipeline becomes operational in December.

South Korean river turns red after being polluted with pigs' blood www.bbc.com

A river near the inter-Korean border has turned red after being polluted with blood from pig carcasses.

Mongolia exports 32.3 million tons of coal as of first ten months www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. Mongolia planned to export 42 million tons of coal in 2019. According to statistics of Mongolian General Customs Administration, Mongolia has exported 32.3 million tons of coal as of first ten months of 2019 which means there is a necessity to export 9.7 tons of coal in order to reach the goal. But the People’s Republic of China appears to maintain its coal import at 200-300 million tons so that the amount of coal export has a tendency to slow down in the last months of 2019 according to Bloomberg.

“The fish rots from the head!” www.news.mn

There has long been public criticism in Mongolia of top civil servants living lives of luxury using government money. For example, lawmakers regularly use official cars for private ends – such as collecting their children from schools or going on shopping sprees to the boutiques of Zaisan with their wives. “Why should taxpayers pay for this?” is a frequently asked question. But, it is not just MP’s who are being criticized by the public: Also on the list are constitutional court officials, the Attorney General, the directors of the Customs Administration, the not so secretive General Intelligence Agency. To highlight the scale of the problem, officials from Mongolia’s transparency watchdog, the Independent Agency against Anti-Corruption, have been spotted misusing their official vehicles. The problem goes right to the top: Despite public complaints to the Mongolian Cabinet itself, absolutely no action is being taken.The Mongolian Transport Police Department in cooperation with the Civil Service Council have conducted an inspection around five secondary schools where numerous official cars have been seen parked – clearly not on official business. The children of most MPs currently attend high-priced private schools where fees range from MNT 20-75 million per year. This raises an obvious question, when one considers that the monthly salary of Mongolian lawmakers is MNT 1 million: “Where are they getting the money from?” According to the Independent Agency against Anti-Corruption, the total monetary loss through corruption has reached MNT 12 trillion. But, who are they to talk?

China’s investment to Mongolia reaches USD 108 million www.news.mn

Mongolia and China have set goals of reaching a bilateral trade turnoverof USD 10 billion by 2020. This is part of their comprehensive strategicpartnership. China is Mongolia’s biggest investor as it accounts for 21 percent offoreign direct investment (FDI) to the country and over 50 percent ofMongolian companies with foreign equity. China’s investment in Mongolia reached USD 108 million, of which 68percent comes from the mining sector, and 21 percent from trade andthe food sector.

The US coal producers plowing ahead with new mines in a rout www.mining.com

As coal prices tumble and bankruptcies rise, a few U.S. miners are still pushing ahead with plans to expand.

Arch Coal Inc. and Consol Energy Inc. remain on track to open new mines to dig steelmaking, or metallurgical, coal from the West Virginia hills. That’s even as the market is already glutted, with prices down about 30% in 12 months.

They’re betting they can produce coal cheaply enough to profit even as their rivals retrench. Bloomberg Intelligence expects the global supply of the metallurgical variety to exceed demand this year by 2.7%, as economic headwinds blunt steel demand. At least four U.S. companies have shut mines since August. Five have filed for bankruptcy this year.

“There is a lot of pain in the marketplace,” Consol Chief Executive Officer Jimmy Brock said during a conference call last week. “We expect to hold our ground.”

Arch ahead of schedule
Arch, the second largest U.S. miner, has already started digging small amounts of coal from its Leer South project, which won’t reach full production of 3 million tons annually until the third quarter of 2021. The company announced the project in February, when metallurgical coal prices were around $190 per ton. Now they’re at about $137. The site is near an existing Arch mine and will plumb the same reserves, reducing some of the risk for the company.

In July, Arch sped up the project’s schedule by a quarter. Last month, the company said it would “drive forward with the accelerated build-out.” Arch did not respond to a request for comment.

Consol marches on
Consol, the eighth-largest U.S. miner, expects to begin extracting some coal next quarter from its Itmann mine in West Virginia before ramping up to full capacity in 2021. Excavation is already underway, and the company is working to hire miners. Consol announced the project in May, just as metallurgical coal prices peaked at about $200 million a ton. At the time, Brock said the returns on the project would “significantly” exceed capital costs even if met coal is $150 per ton.

Warrior on the fence
Warrior Met Coal Inc. is laying groundwork for a new metallurgical mine, too, but doesn’t plant to make a final decision on it until next early next year. The company expects the Blue Creek project will be “fully permitted and shovel ready” at that time.

While Warrior Met has said repeatedly that it hasn’t made a final call, “many investors interpreted the company’s language on its earnings call to mean the project is more likely to happen than not,” Seaport Global analyst Mark Levin wrote in a research note.

Contura’s pending results
Contura Energy Inc. has also unveiled plans to start production at a new metallurgical mine in West Virginia next year. But coal from the Lynn Branch project will essentially offset the lost output from another mine in the region that Contura is closing. The company hasn’t disclosed much in recent months about the project, which was announced in May. Contura is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings Thursday.

Bankruptcies and closing mines
Much of the rest of the U.S. coal industry is struggling. Peabody Energy Corp., the top U.S. coal company, announced last month that it was closing an Illinois mine. Murray Energy Corp., the biggest closely held American coal producer, filed for bankruptcy last month, becoming at least the fifth to do so this year.

“We probably won’t need all that new U.S. met coal within the time frame of when they’re expected to come online,” Bloomberg Intelligence Andrew Cosgrove said in an interview.

(By Will Wade)

Job availability expectation decreases among consumers www.zgm.mn

Current Situation Index (CSI) was the main driver of this growth. In particular, the CSI has increased by 7.3 percentage points to 60.7. However, the Expectation Index has decreased slightly by 1.8 percentage points and reached 98.7.