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China Gas Holdings Ltd. - a Hong Kong-listed holding company with subsidiaries engaged in the supply of natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - is expected to begin LNG bunkering in 2014 in response to the central government's promotion of clean energy for ships and motor vehicles, according to local media reports.

The vice president of China Gas, Liang Yongchang, is cited as saying that the company is in the process of upgrading its LNG facilities at a number of port terminals in China, in order to begin offering an LNG bunkering service to vessels on the Yangtze River from next year.

"There are lots of vessels which will be converted to LNG power, so there is a big potential in the LNG bunkering market," Yongchang is quoted as saying.

The China Gas vice president added that the company would set out to first sign cooperation agreements with shipping firms and then develop LNG bunkering terminals according to their shipping routes.

China Gas supplies natural gas to 195 cities in China and expects sales to skyrocket by as much as fivefold by 2020 as the country pushes for wider use of the fuel to replace coal.

Earlier this year, China Gas agreed to buy the Chinese gas assets of UK-registered Fortune Oil Plc. for $400 million, as part of an effort to tap rising demand for cleaner energy sources.