According to the Xinhua news agency, “At 9am PetroChina president Jiang Jiemin pushed the button at a gas compression station at Jingbian in northwest China's Shaanxi Province to launch valves of both the western and eastern sections of the gas pipeline spanning over 4,000 kilometres, indicating full gas transmission of the pipeline project.”
“Construction of the gas pipeline project began on July 4, 2002, with an investment exceeding 140 billion yuan (US$16.9 billion). The gas pipeline is expected to transmit 12 billion cubic meters of gas a year, running through Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang,” it added.
The pipeline has been operating in phases since October last year with the eastern section between Shaanxi and Shanghai. The western section between Lunnan and Jingbian started gas transmission in September this year.
According to Jiang, in an interview with Xinhua, “Upon full operation of the gas pipeline, the Tarim Basin gas field in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will replace Changqing gas field in Shaanxi Province as the main gas source on December 1 this year. By January 1, 2005, the whole gas pipeline will start commercial gas supply.”
