China's West-East Pipeline Has Supplied 18.7 bcm of Gas to Ningxia Till Date
West-East gas pipeline has till date supplied 18.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Ningxia in northwestern China, according to CNPC.
CNPC in a statement said that share of natural gas as primary source of energy in Ningxia is now 4.6 percent. Close to 8 million people in the region have given up usage of coal as a result of regular gas supplies, the company stated.
The pipeline is expected to supply 3.44 bcm per year of gas to Ningxia in northwestern China by the end of 2020.
The first West-East gas pipeline is mainly supplied by the Tarim gas province in Xinjiang. It runs from Lunnan field in the Tarim Basin to Baihe town in Shanghai, with a total length of 4,380km. The pipeline passes through 10 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions), i.e., Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang. The pipeline was kicked off on July 4, 2002, completed and put into trial operation on October 1, 2004, and became commercial operational on December 30, 2004.
The second West-East gas pipeline is mainly supplied by gas from Central Asia. The 8,819km-long pipeline, consisting of one trunk and eight branches, runs from Horgos in Xinjiang, where it is connected with the Central Asia-China pipeline, to Shanghai and Hong Kong. This pipeline is capable of delivering 30 billion cubic meters annually for over 30 years. It passes through 14 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) including Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hunan, and Shandong, as well as Hong Kong SAR. Construction of the second pipeline was started in February 2008, and it was completed and put into operation in December 2012.
The third West-East gas pipeline is mainly supplied by gas from Central Asia, with SNG in Xinjiang as the supplementary. It will run from Horgos in Xinjiang to Fuzhou in Fujian, crossing Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong. Consisting of one trunk and five branches, it stretches a total length of 6,840km with a designed annual delivery capacity of 30 billion cubic meters.
The three pipelines are interconnected and can be controlled in an integrated manner through the hubs in Zhongwei, Jingbian, Zaoyang and Ji’an. The four major gas provinces including Tarim, Changqing, SichuanChongqing and Qinghai are connected through the Ji-Ning, Zhongwei-Jingbian, Huai-Wu cross-link lines, and ZhongxianWuhan and Sebei-Xining-Lanzhou pipelines.