China's longest gas pipeline to open on Thursday
AP[ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2004 10:03:52 PM ]
BEIJING: China's longest pipeline a multibillion-dollar project aimed at bringing natural gas from the country's west to the booming east will officially open on Thursday, officials said.
The 4,000-kilometer (2,500-mile) West-East Gas Pipeline is expected to transport natural gas from the western Xinjiang region to energy-starved industrial cities on China's eastern seaboard.
"This project will generate both tremendous economic returns and great social benefits," said Xu Dingming, director of the Energy Bureau of the Cabinet's National Development and Reform Commission.
"Undoubtedly, it will become a milestone in the entire modernization drive of the country," he said at a news conference. Fully operating, the pipeline will begin operations from its terminus in the western Xinjiang region, bringing gas some 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) northwest to Shanghai and other nearby cities.
It will also help boost the flagging economy of the west, which Beijing has been pushing to develop in recent years.
The project could bring in revenue worth 1 billion yuan (US$120 million; euro89 million) to Xinjiang each year, the official Xinhua News Agency has said.
Su Shulin, vice chairman of PetroChina, which is overseeing the project, said the pipeline will be transporting 12 billion cubic meters of gas by 2007.
Construction on the US$5.2 billion (euro3.2 billion) line began in July 2002.
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