Gas flows on longest pipeline
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Shanghai Daily, July 1, 2011
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A torch in the background bursts into flames fueled by natural gas from the west-to-east pipeline after the valve on the conduits (in the foreground) was opened in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, yesterday. The world's longest gas pipeline brings fuel from Turkmenistan to the Pearl River Delta region, including Hong Kong. |
The trunk line of China's second west-to-east gas pipeline, the world's longest of its kind, started operating on Thursday, carrying gas to the southern city of Guangzhou from central Asia.
The 8,700-kilometer pipeline runs through 14 provincial areas on the Chinese mainland, including Shanghai, to reach the Pearl River Delta region. It starts from Huoerguosi in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the capital of Guangdong Province, a manufacturing hub.
The second west-to-east pipeline, a 142.2 billion yuan (US$22 billion) project, is designed to take 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Turkmenistan, supplying the cleaner-burning fuel to cities including Shanghai in the east and Hong Kong in the south.
Three of its eight branch lines are operational while the remainder will be in use by June next year.
Liao Yongyuan, vice president of China National Petroleum Corp and the man in charge of the line's construction, billed the project as "the Great Wall Underground."
The western section of the trunk line, linking Huoerguosi and Zhongwei in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, went into operation at the end of 2009.
The annual supplies of 30 billion cubic meters will increase the share of natural gas in China's primary energy consumption by 1-2 percentage points, Liao said, adding that 400 million people could benefit from the project when it is fully operational.
China's gas consumption jumped 21.8 percent to 109 billion cubic meters last year, according to BP Plc's Statistical Review of World Energy.
The nation is importing more gas to meet rising demand at home, especially in the booming coastal regions.
But the import rates, now higher than domestic prices, have made the business unprofitable, triggering calls for price reform.
Liao said the government was planning a third west-to-east gas pipeline to take more than 20 billion cubic meters of gas a year from central Asia.
China's first west-to-east gas line, which started piping gas from the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang to Shanghai in 2004, delivers some 12 billion cubic meters annually.
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