Natural gas consumption growth in China is estimated at 9 percent this year, the first time that expansion has been in the single-digit range since 2007, experts said on Wednesday.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), consumption will rise only about 8 percent annually on average, said Qian Xingkun, vice-president of CNPC Economics and Technology Research Institute, an energy think tank run by the China National Petroleum Corp.

He offered the figures during the Third Asian Gas Market Forum in Beijing.