By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Mar. 12 -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) has selected GE Oil & Gas compression technology for a new pipeline project designed to help ease natural gas shortages in the country's eastern commercial hub.
GE and Sinopec also are forming a 2-year strategic agreement to foster continued cooperation between the two companies.
GE will supply eight centrifugal compressor packages and auxiliary equipment for a Sinopec pipeline, which will transport gas from Puguang field in Sichuan to Shanghai in China's eastern region. The pipeline will have an initial capacity of 6 billion cu m of gas that will be increased to 15 billion cu m. It is scheduled to begin service in 2009.
The main trunk of the new pipeline will cover more than 1,600 km and will cross several Chinese provinces, including Sichuan, Hubei, Anhui, and Zhejiang. An 842-km secondary line will originate at Yichang City in Hubei and end in Puyang City in Henan, another central province. Two shorter branches will be built near Puguang gas field and one in the east near Shanghai.
"This project supports China's plans to more than double the share of natural gas in the country's energy mix by the end of the decade, in an effort to increase the use of cleaner fuels to meet China's enormous energy needs," said Claudi Santiago, president and CEO of GE Oil & Gas. "It will deliver natural gas from Puguang, which is Sinopec's largest field, to the thriving eastern region where fuel demand is very strong."
The strategic agreement calls for GE Oil & Gas and Sinopec to deepen cooperation in new product research and development, the application of new technology, products and technology standardization, quality management, equipment maintenance, and technical training.