The giant project pumping natural gas from China's energy-rich West to energy-thirsty East passed environmental appraisal organized by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) Friday.

According to the appraisal team, all environmental protection targets have effectively been completed during the construction and operation of the project, which has reached the environmental protection requirements of both the state and local governments.

The 4,000 kilometer-long pipeline runs through different geographical conditions including desert, grassland, farmland and rivers, passes regions with state-listed nature preserves or cultural relices and traverses the ancient Great Wall 12 times.

Nearly 3.6 percent of the total construction cost was used in environmental protection, said a senior manager of the project.

To protect natural environment at the Wild Bactrian Camels Nature Preserve in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, project builders moved the gas pipeline northward, extending the total length by 15 km which cost an additional investment of 200 million yuan (US$24.7 million).

By adopting advanced technologies, the pipeline traverses the ancient Great Wall without bringing any bad effects to this rare historical site.

By refitting the current rural roads instead of building new ones, the project has not only improved local transportation conditions but also reduced bad effects on local environment and sites of historical interests.

The pipeline, built by the China National Petroleum Company Ltd, runs through nine provinces and one municipality from West to EastChina.

Put into commercial operation at the end of last year, the project is considered to be able to increase the proportion of natural gas in China's total energy consumption from 2.2 percent to over 3 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2005)