West-East Gas Pipeline
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The West-East Gas Pipeline is a 4,000-kilometers long pipeline, which runs from Lunnan in Xinjiang to Shanghai. The pipeline pass through 66 counties in the 10 provinces in China. The West-East Gas Pipeline is connected to the Shaan-Jing Parallel Pipeline by the 886 kilometers long Ji-Ning branch, operational since 30 December 2005, between the Qingshan Distributing Station and the Anping Distributing Station.
The construction of the West-East Gas Pipeline started in 2002 and it was put into operation on 1 October 2004. The pipeline is owned and operated by the Natural Gas and Pipeline Company, subsidiary of PetroChina. Originally was agreed that PetroChina would have had 50% of the pipeline, while Royal Dutch Shell, Gazprom and ExxonMobil had been slated to hold 15% each and Sinopec 5%. However, in August 2006 this agreement was ended by PetroChina.
The gas will be used for electricity production in the Yangtze River Delta area. There is a plan to replace use of coal by gas in Shanghai by 2010.
The pipeline is supplied from the Tarim Basin gas fields in Xinjiang province. The Changqing gas area in Shaanxi province is a secondary gas source. In future, the planned Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline will be connected to the West-East Gas Pipeline.
Capacity of the pipeline is 12 bcm natural gas annually. The cost of pipeline was 5.7 billion USD. By the end of 2007 the capacity is planned to be upgraded up to 17 bcm. For this purpose 10 new gas compressor stations will be built and 8 existing stations will be upgraded. There is a plan to build second west-east pipeline to increase the natural gas supply in the eastern part of China.
[edit] External links
- West-East Gas Pipeline project, by china.org.cn
- The West-East Gas Pipeline Project, by PetroChina
- West-East gas pipeline expands supply area, by China Daily, 22 June 2005
- China proposes construction of 2nd west-east gas pipeline, by Xinhua, 11 March 2006
- PetroChina To Boost West-East Gas Pipeline's Capacity 42%, by George Bernard, Dow Jones Chinese Financial Wire, 1 September 2006
