China August natural gas output up 6.0 pct y/y

China's natural gas production rose 6.0 percent in August from a year earlier to 10.4 billion cubic metres (bcm), data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Sunday.

For the first eight months of the year, gas output grew 3.0 percent over the same period a year earlier to 83.5 bcm, slowing from a 6.9-percent rise for all of 2014 and growth of 11.5 percent in 2013.

A dramatic slowdown in demand growth for the cleaner-burning fuel has seen state energy companies curbing natural gas output at major conventional fields in southwestern Sichuan basin.

Domestic production fell two months in a row over April and May compared with a year earlier, before returning to moderate growth.

Industries such as glass making and chemical manufacturing have cut back on the use of natural gas since late last year as China's economic growth slows and the cost advantage of the fuel becomes less obvious versus competing fuels such as diesel and gasoline.

(Reporting By Chen Aizhu and Adam Rose; Editing by Kim Coghill)