China to finance cross-country gas pipeline from Central Asia

Moscow, Aug 27 (UNI) China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will finance the construction of a pipeline across the country to supply Central Asian gas to the southern and eastern parts of China.

The state-owned giant CNPC today said the second West-East pipeline project had been approved by the Chinese Government, and that CNPC would be the sole investor, RIA Novosti news agency reported from Beijing quoting the CNPC.

The 7,000 km pipeline with a designed capacity of 30 billion cubic metres per year is expected to go on-stream in 2010.

Construction will start in 2008, the company said.

The pipeline will start in the province of Xinjiang in China's northwest, on the border with Central Asian states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and end at Guangzhou in the south, and Shanghai in the east.

The pipeline will supply natural gas from Central Asia, mainly from gas-rich Turkmenistan.

In July, during the visit of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov to China, CNPC and Turkmenistan's national gas company Turkmengaz signed an agreement on natural gas supplies.

Under the deal, the ex-Soviet republic will supply 30 billion cubic metres of gas to China annually.

UNI