Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 18 -- China is likely to start the second phase of the West-East natural gas pipeline project around yearend or early 2008, according to a senior government official.
Chen Deming, vice-chairman of the State Development and Reform Commission, said gas from Xinjiang, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Shaanxi Province will be transported to the Pearl River Delta through the country's pipeline network after completion of the West-East project.
Chen said more than 12 billion cu m of gas will be supplied to the Yangtze River Delta in 2 years' time, due to increased imports of gas and large-scale gas exploitation in Chongqing Municipality and Sichuan Province.
By then, he said, the urban gas and transportation systems in half the regions of China will gradually have access to clean gas.
Over the last 4 years, China has seen a 62% increase in the growth of its oil and gas pipeline networks, which now extend a total of 48,000 km, according to official figures (OGJ Online, Oct. 10, 2007).
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