So far 22 billion cubic meters of natural gas have been transferred from the Karamay No.2 Gas Field, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, to the eastern part of China, benefiting 200-million-plus Chinese urbanites in 80-odd cities in the past three years.

The No. 2 Gas Field is located in Baicheng County. Its productivity was confirmed in 1999, when a high-yield gas flow was found. After two years’ investigation, 47 sq km of land in the field have been found to contain rich gas resource, the total reserve of which is 280 billion cubic meters.

It was the discovery of the No.2 Gas Field that had encouraged the central authorities to make up their mind to launch the West-to-East Gas Transmission Project. Now the project serves as an important energy artery of China.

The development of the No.2 Gas Field was started in 2003, and it was put into production in the end of 2004. It has the capacity of producing 10.8 billion cubic meters of gas every year, enough to meet the demand in eastern China.

The gas from the No.2 Gas Field to the Yangtze River Delta has taken the place of 20 million tons of standard coal, thus the emission of harmful substance has been cut by 1 million tons.

In 2007, the annual output of the No.2 Gas Field will break 10 billion cubic meters. The director of the gas field is confident in supplying at least 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas every year for more than 16 years, which will be a great help to the on going Green Olympics drive.

(Chinanews.cn December 9, 2007)