Northeast China will use natural gas from Kovykta of Siberia, Russia, in the near future. Marketing research for the project is going on and the feasibility study report is expected to be approved by the governments of the two sides by the end of June 2003. Beginning from 2008, 20 billion cubic meters of gas from Siberia will be provided annually to the northeastern provinces of China.

Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces in the Northeast are target markets of the Kovykta gas. Such large and middle-sized cities as Qiqihar, Daqing and Harbin of Heilongjiang; Changchun and Jilin of Jilin Province; and Shenyang and Dalian of Liaoning are the potential customers of the project.

High-grade natural gas from Siberia will replace the traditional fuels such as coal, oil and gas used in this area. The project will not only help reduce fuel-consumption cost but also ease the pressure from environmental pollution.

In August this year, a coordination meeting was held in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, and attended by people from the relevant departments of the three northeast provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. Hong Yuanshu, head of the petroleum and chemistry office of the Heilongjiang Provincial Development Planning Committee, said that investigation in his province is focused on the volume of gas consumption of residents in daily life and industrial consumers as well as the selection of the sites for distribution stations. Measures to replace traditional fuels with natural gas are also being worked out in Heilongjiang Province. Meanwhile, the other two target provinces, Jilin and Liaoning, are adopting similar measures to complete their marketing research.

(china.org.cn translated by Zhang Tingting, November 29, 2002)