China bets big on pipelines
- Source: Global Times
- [03:12 December 14 2009]
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By Guo Qiang
A file photo shows Chinese workers inspecting the pipeline at a section under the Yangtze River in Ruichang, Jiangxi Province, on October 11. The pipeline, going from the country's west to the coastal east, connects with the China-Central Asia pipeline. Photo: Xinhua
President Hu Jintao is expected today to announce the opening of a massive natural gas pipeline through Central Asia that will help curb supply shortages.
The 1,833-kilometer line connects Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. One of the two sections of the pipeline has been completed, and the other section will be operational next year.
"With an annual expanded transmission capacity of up to 40 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan, the route will fill the natural-gas gap," Zhang Yao, director of the Russia and Central Asia Research Center at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times.
Hu's announcement is set to come on his last stop on a tour through Central Asia that he started Saturday in Kazakhstan and ends today after two days in Turkmenistan.
With a natural-gas shortage hanging over China, the China- Central Asia gas pipeline will help meet China's surging demand and reflects multilateral interest in regional cooperation, experts said.
The pipeline, starting at the border between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, will run through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before reaching China's northwestern region of Xinjiang.
It will pump gas to China's second West-East natural gas transmission pipeline project and benefit 14 cities and provinces in the Pearl River Delta region, the Yangtze River Delta and central and western China.
In a statement Sunday, Hu said his current trip is aimed at further promoting mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples and deepening mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas, according to Xinhua.
