China starts work on third West-East gas pipeline

BEIJING. March 10. KAZINFORM China, the world?s second-biggest energy consumer, started initial construction of its third gas pipeline connecting the remote west to the country?s eastern cities to meet future demand for the cleaner-burning fuel.

Final approval from the National Development and Reform Commission, the country?s top economic planner, is still pending, Su Shifeng, the chief consultant at China National Petroleum Corp.?s pipeline unit, told reporters in Beijing today. The natural-gas link will have an annual capacity of between 20 billion and 30 billion cubic meters, Su said. The first gas pipeline from the province of Xinjiang to China?s eastern regions has been in operation since December 2004, while the second is being built. Gas will account for 8 percent of the nation?s overall energy consumption by 2015 compared with 3.3 percent in 2007, Cui Yingkai, a director at PetroChina Co.?s gas and pipeline unit, said on Nov. 27. ?The pipeline will source gas from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and transport the fuel via Xinjiang to cities in the east,? Su said. ?The final route hasn?t been decided yet.? China has 60,000 kilometers of pipelines, including 17,000 kilometers of crude oil links, 12,000 kilometers of oil product pipelines and 31,000 kilometers of gas linkages, he said. China National aims to more than double the length of the pipelines it operates to 87,000 kilometers by 2020 from 40,000 kilometers currently, according to Su. Myanmar Pipeline The state oil company may also commence preliminary work on a gas link between China and Myanmar in the fourth quarter, Su said. The pipeline spanning thousands of kilometers will be connected to the second West-East link, which will also draw fuel from Turkmenistan, PetroChina?s Cui said in November. The two countries are still in talks on a cross-border crude oil pipeline, Su said, without elaborating. China National will speed up construction of pipelines of ?strategic importance,? Su said. ?Non-core projects? such as gas storage tanks will be delayed because of the global financial crisis, he said. Gas consumption jumped 10 percent to 80.7 billion cubic meters last year, outpacing crude oil?s 5.1 percent gain, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Feb. 26. Oil companies led by China National Offshore Oil Corp. are planning more than 10 liquefied natural gas terminals on the eastern coast. LNG is natural gas that has been chilled to liquid form, reducing it to one-six-hundredth of its original volume for transportation by ship to destinations not connected by pipeline, Kazinform refers to Bloomberg.