A 4,000-kilometer-plus natural gas project linking Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region and Shanghai began commercial
operations on Thursday. It will help quench demand for clean fuel
in the energy-thirsty Yangtze River Delta.
The pipeline will supply gas to Henan,
Anhui,
Jiangsu
and Zhejiang
provinces as well as Shanghai.
"PetroChina
has already signed an agreement with 40 users so far. The project
will break even this year and is expected to make a profit next
year," reported Xinhua news agency, citing Su Shulin, vice general
manager of China National Petroleum Corp, the parent company of
PetroChina.
PetroChina, the country's biggest oil firm, is the main sponsor
of the project, which has a designed annual transmission capacity
of 12 billion cubic meters.
PetroChina will endeavor to boost the project's annual capacity
to 18 billion cubic meters in 2006 by setting up 10 gas-compressing
stations along the line.
Industrialists are hoping to recover their investment and start
to reap profits next year, although not all experts agree that this
is likely.
Currently, natural gas accounts for less than 3 percent of the
country's total energy consumption, according to Xinhua.
But there is a growing appetite for clean fuel, and demand for
natural gas is expected to reach 100 billion cubic meters in 2010.
This figure is forecast to double by 2020.
The same day, President Hu Jintao sent a message to a ceremony
in Beijing marking the pipeline's completion.
He expressed gratitude to the construction workers, on behalf of
the CPC
Central Committee and the
State Council.
"The completion of the cross-provinces gas project symbolizes,
once again, that China's socialist system boasts the advantage of
being able to concentrate resources in carrying out big projects,"
he said.
(Shanghai Daily, China Daily December 31,
2004)
