West–East Gas Pipeline

West–East Gas Pipeline (Chinese: 西氣東輸) is a 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) long pipeline, which runs from Lunnan in Xinjiang to Shanghai. The pipeline passes through 66 counties in the 10 provinces in China.Natural gas transported by the pipeline is used for electricity production in the Yangtze River Delta area. There is a plan to replace coal with gas in Shanghai by 2010.

The construction of the West–East Gas Pipeline started in 2002. The pipeline was put into trial operation on 1 October 2004, and the full commercial supply of natural gas commenced on 1 January 2005. The pipeline is owned and operated by PetroChina West–East Gas Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of PetroChina. Originally, it was agreed that PetroChina would have owned 50% of the pipeline, while Royal Dutch Shell, Gazprom, and ExxonMobil had been slated to hold 15% each, and Sinopec 5%. However, in August 2004, the Board of Directors of PetroChina announced that following good faith discussions with all parties to the Joint Venture Framework Agreement, the parties had not been able to reach an agreement, and the Joint Venture Framework Agreement was terminated.

The capacity of the pipeline is 12 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, annually. The cost of the pipeline was US$5.7 billion. By the end of 2007, the capacity was planned to be upgraded to 17 bcm. For this purpose, ten new gas compressor stations will be built and eight existing stations are to be upgraded.

The West–East Gas Pipeline is connected to the Shaan-Jing pipeline by three branch pipelines. The 886 kilometres (551 mi) long Ji-Ning branch between the Qingshan Distributing Station and the Anping Distributing Station became operational on 30 December 2005.

The pipeline is supplied from the Tarim Basin gas fields in Xinjiang province. The Changqing gas area in Shaanxi province is a secondary gas source. In the future, the planned Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline will be connected to the West–East Gas Pipeline.

Starting from 15 September 2009, the pipeline is also supplied with coalbed methane from the Qinshui Basin in Shanxi.

Construction of the second West–East Gas Pipeline started on 22 February 2008. The pipeline with a total length of 9,102 kilometres (5,656 mi), including 4,843 kilometres (3,009 mi) of the main line and eight sub-lines, will run from Khorgas in northwestern Xinjiang to Guangzhou in Guangdong. Up to Gansu, it will be parallel and interconnected with the first west-east pipeline. The western part of the pipeline is expected to be commissioned by 2009, and the eastern part by June 2011.