Construction has started on a gas pipeline from the western Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to the southern Guangdong Province, according to China National Petroleum Corporation.

The eastern section of the second west-east gas pipeline was approved by the State Council last month and construction started last week at four sites in the provinces of Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Guangdong.

The pipeline will stretch 2,477 kilometers from Zhongwei in western Ningxia to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, and cost 93 billion yuan (US$13.6 billion).

Construction on the western section from Zhongwei to Khorgos in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, began in February and is expected to be finished by 2009. The pipeline will be linked with a Central Asia gas pipeline which is expected to be under construction at the end of 2009 and be operational in 2011.

The designed capacity of the pipeline is 30 billion cubic meters per year. The gas will mainly be supplied by the Central Asia gas pipeline. It is expected to increase the share of natural gas in China's total fuel consumption by one to two percent.

The project will save 76.8 million tons of coal a year and help to cut carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 130 million tons a year, sulfur dioxide by 1.44 million tons, and soot dust 660,000 tons, the company said.

Gas will be transmitted to the eastern, southern and central parts of the country as a result.

(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2008)