Monday was a milestone for China's West-East Gas Project. The Zhengzhou section, one of its major components, was finished. When the entire pipeline is completed in 2004, it will deliver 12 billion cubic meters of gas across the country.
The gigantic west-east pipeline is well on the way to begin delivering gas by October. The Zhengzhou section in central Henan Province has been called the "throat" of the whole project. On Monday, when the throat section was completed, people cheered.
Wang Shukuan, consultant of West-East Gas Pipeline Company, said, "The success of today's work was a significant step in the whole west to east gas project. It paves the way for transporting gas to eastern China in the future."
The cross-China pipeline will carry natural gas from remote deserts in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to booming Shanghai. It's part of the government's strategy to develop the economy of the remote western regions, while benefiting the east as well.
Once the gas is flowing from Xinjiang, it will replace millions of tons of coal burned each year in China, which in turn will benefit the environment. The Shaanxi gas fields are scheduled to begin pumping by October 1. The first gas will be delivered to Shanghai by early next year.
(CCTV.com September 17, 2003)
