 |
Schedule for West to East Natural Gas Pipeline Confirmed
The schedule to build a pipeline to ship natural gas from the West to East has been tentatively confirmed and will begin providing Shanghai with natural gas by the year 2003, announced China Petroleum Natural Gas Group Co. assistant general manager Yan Sanzhong.
Yan Sanzhong said that according to the tentative plans, the early stage research work will be completed by the end of this year. The pipeline will be completed in three years, from 2001 to 2003. The section of the pipeline from Shaanxi province to Shanghai will hopefully be completed in 2002 and the section from Lunnan to Shaanxi province will be completed in 2003.
At first, natural gas from Shaanxi province, Gansu province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region will be shipped to Shanghai. Then, starting in 2004, natural gas from the Tarim area in Xinjiang will be shipped to the Yangtze delta area. By 2005, the pipeline will be able to transport 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas and will eventually be extended to 20 billion cubic meters.
Shipping natural gas from West to East is one of the major projects of China's strategy to develop the West. The 45.6 billion yuan project will build a 4,167-kilometer pipeline to transport natural gas from Xinjiang's Tarim region to Shanghai. Initially, it will be able to transport 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas. After adding the investments in exploring for natural gas fields, managing city networks and other relevant projects, the total investment is expected to be as high as 120 billion.
To date, 505 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves have been discovered in the Tarim Basin. Calculations based on the 12 billion cubic meters shipping capability of the pipeline estimate that this is enough natural gas to maintain a steady supply for thirty years.
The proposed pipeline will pass through nine provinces, four of which are in the West. 67% of the investments to build the pipeline will be going to the West, which will help the local economy.
In This Section
|