China bets big on pipelines
- Source: Global Times
- [03:12 December 14 2009]
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By 2011, the pipeline will transfer up to 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Its capacity could reach 30 billion per year, plus an additional 17 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan purchased by China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), one of China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier.
China's gas shortages are expected to grow to 30 billion cubic meters next year, and the figure could reach 40 billion in 2015, the China News Agency reported.
CNPC imported at least 700 million cubic meters of liquefied natural gas last month from the spot market to cope with an urgent gas shortage that hit southern China due to a sudden cold snap.
The inauguration of the pipeline comes on the heels of Hu's attendance at Saturday's completion ceremony of a 1,300-kilometer Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline in Kazakhstan.
The project is part of the China-Central Asia gas pipeline, which is also known as Turkmenistan-China pipeline and was constructed in 2007, one year after former Turkmenistan president Saparmurat Niyazov's visit to China. Under a 30-year contract, the transit route will provide 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to China.
Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves rank fourth worldwide after Russia, the United States and Iran. Official statistics said its reserves could reach up to 25 trillion cubic meters.
China began tapping into Central Asia's rich oil and gas energy in 1997 when it signed an intergovernmental agreement with Kazakhstan to build an oil pipeline between western Kazakhstan and Xinjiang.
Diversified energy imports
"The new transit route reflects China's strategy to diversify its energy-import sources and is essential to guaranteeing China's energy-import security," Zhang said.
The Middle East and West Africa are two traditional sources of energy imports for China, and half of the energy needed is currently imported from the Middle East.
"Transporting energy through a sea route such as the Malacca Strait entails great potential risks. If any geopolitical conflict occurs, the route will be cut off," Zhang warned.
