A mammoth project designed to pipe natural gas from the gas-rich
western regions to the east is to begin soon, according to a senior
official from the State Development Planning Commission.
"We've made rapid progress in the project's feasibility study and
we are well prepared to kick it off in the near future," said Zhang
Guobao, vice-minister of the commission.
Zhang, also a team leader of the project's national leadership
group, said his team has examined China International Project
Consulting Company's review report on the feasibility study
submitted by
China National
Petroleum Corp and other departments this April.
The pipeline is a key project in the nation's 10th Five-Year Plan
(2001-05), and is listed as one of the first groups of large-scale,
key and huge investment programs in the western development
strategy. The 4,000-kilometre pipeline starts from the Tarim Basin
in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, proceeds across seven
other provinces and ends in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta
area.
It
will involve a fixed asset investment of 40 billion yuan (US$4.8
billion), with a designed annual delivery capacity of 12-20 billion
cubic metres, according to Zhang.
By
2004, the entire pipeline will be connected and brought into
operation, with a targeted capacity of 20 billion cubic metres per
year.
Zhang said the feasibility study included of discovering colossal
gas deposits, preparing quality pipes, finding out the market
demand and the involvement of foreign partners.
Statistics show that the gas deposits of the Tarim Basin, the main
supplier, amount to 8.39 trillion cubic metres, with an explored
reserve of 562 billion cubic metres. The Ordos Basin, the
supporting source, has 750 billion cubic metres known reserves.
In
addition, the country's pipe manufacturers have produced quality
products but Zhang, at present, will not disclose which enterprises
have won the bid to produce the essential network.
According to feasibility study, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan
provinces in East and Central China and Shanghai are the gas's
potential markets.
(China Daily
09/25/2001)