Geological reserves of sulfur in China's sour gas fields and the strategy of sulfur markets

Abstract Exploiting and using sour natural gas safely, effectively and economically is very important for improving China's self-sufficient rate of sulfur, getting rid of the high dependence on import, and ensuring the market independence and environmental safety. The proved reserves of sour natural gas in China are about 1×10 12 m 3 , and the economically recoverable reserves are above 3 700×10 8 m 3 . By statistics of the abundance of sulfur and geological reserves, we calculate that the proved reserves of sulfur are 14 946.04×10 4 t in China, of which the economically recoverable reserves are 9 001.69×10 4 t. However, the high sour natural gas being developed mainly in dolomite reservoirs, the imbalance distribution of geological reserves, the gas reservoirs' deep burial and the high concentration of sulfur, determine the sulfur reserves, recovery cost, supply, and regional price imbalance, and finally affect the industry chain trend of sulfur-chemical fertilizer-biological energy-petroleum price in the Chinese market. The sulfur market development situation in China and abroad indicates that seeking the stable, traditional market of Southeast Asia and preempting the market of high concentration phosphate fertilizers in South America are the inevitable choice to achieve stable exploitation of Chinese sour natural gas and to resolve the contradiction between market supply and demand.