China's natural gas output is rapidly increasing, driven by growing demand, Yu Baocai, vice general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation, said on Thursday.

During the first China International Oil and Gas Trade Conference, Yu estimated that the country's natural gas output will reach 200 billion cubic meters before 2020.

Driven by the country's policies to reduce carbon emissions and raise the clean energy portion in the energy consumption mix, natural gas demand has been increasing in the last years.

According to the government's latest policy on natural gas ― which will become effective on Dec 1 ― China will encourage more natural gas usage in transportation, in addition to household use.

The annual output of natural gas in China has increased from 22.9 billion cu m in 2002 to 101.3 billion cu m last year, ranking sixth in terms of output in the world, according to figures from the Ministry of the Land and Resources.