This announcement comes on the back of the recent completion of the nearly 4,000 km long Xinjiang to Shanghai natural gas pipeline.

According to the paper, the Xinjiang-Gansu is part of a “sweeping government plan to invest more in China’s relatively poor west” and the project “will be the biggest oil pipeline in the country”.

“Work on the pipeline, which will carry crude oil and refined products, will begin in October and is expected to go into operation in 2006,” said the Peoples Daily without elaborating further.

Such is the demand for energy in China to feed its growing needs, it seems the Xinjiang-Gansu is not the only project being undertaken in Xinjiang this year alone. There are two others which will begin construction this year.

One is the 1,500 km Shanshan to Lanzhou project, which will be able to transport 10 million tonnes per annum. The other is the 1,800 km Urumqi to Lanzhou, which will have an annual capacity of between 8-10 million tonnes.