PetroChina still seeking investors in gas pipeline

Jan. 22, 2001
PetroChina Co. Ltd. is still seeking investment in its proposed 4,150 km gas pipeline from Xinjiang in Western China to Shanghai in eastern China. About 60 foreign companies bought the information package from PetroChina at the end of last year. After an initial appraisal of investment bids, PetroChina will shortlist bidders.


BEIJING�PetroChina Co. Ltd. is still seeking investment in its proposed 4,150 km gas pipeline from Xinjiang in Western China to Shanghai in eastern China.

About 60 foreign companies bought the information package from PetroChina at the end of last year. After an initial appraisal of investment bids, PetroChina will shortlist bidders. It will give priority to bidders who will employ Chinese labor and equipment in construction.

PetroChina plans to delay the construction startup of the pipeline to June or July this year, from an earlier schedule of April because of the cold weather that freezes ground in the west in April.

The 49.1 billion yuan pipeline project is one of the measures PetroChina has taken to lure foreign investors into China.

Industry sources said few foreign companies are really interested in bidding for the project, due to major concerns that include the ambiguous government policy on natural gas development, inadequate gas markets in eastern China, and uncertainties about gas production in the West.

PetroChina said the pipeline will need 724.4 billion cu m of gas reserves to sustain an expected annual throughput of 12 billion cu m for 30 years.

The company announced last October that it had discovered 494 billion cu m of gas reserves in Xinjiang's Tarim basin, the major gas supply source for the pipeline.

PetroChina has redesigned the route of the pipeline, which has shortened the distance by more than 100 kilometers from the original 4,167 kilometers.