PetroChina to expand gas pipeline networks in northern China

PetroChina has opened a natural gas pipeline and started building another in northern China, as part of its efforts to expand natural gas pipeline networks to meet booming local gas demand, parent company China National Petroleum Corp. said.
The 177.25-km pipeline in the northwest province of Qinghai came on-line May 29, with a capacity to deliver 2 bn cm of natural gas each year from the Sebei gas field to Germu city, CNPC said. The line runs parallel to an existing pipeline with a capacity of 800 mm cm a year.

Construction of a 148.8-km pipeline in Heilongjiang province in the northeast started May 30, running from Daqing field, the country's largest oil and gas field by output, to Qiqihaer city. It will be completed by the end of this year.
PetroChina, the country's largest oil and natural gas producer by capacity, operates more than 10 natural gas pipelines. Its natural gas production is growing fast, expanding 23.5 % on year in 2006. It forecasts an increase of 21 % in 2007.

China's natural gas demand is expected to reach 100 bn cm by 2010, according to the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning agency, compared with 60 bn cm in 2006.