The Jingbian cross-link station has commenced pumping natural gas to the Shaan-Jing Gas Pipelines. This represents the commercial operation of the western segment of the Second West-East Gas Pipeline.
The company said that heavy snowfall and low temperature since the beginning of the year led to a increase of gas consumption in Beijing, which was up to 53 million cubic meters in early January, much higher than routine volume. CNPC took the pre-arranged countermeasures to ensure gas supply to Beijing.
Gas from Central Asia through the Second West-East Gas Pipeline will provide additional guarantee for gas supplies to Beijing and the surrounding regions. On December 14 and 31, 2009, the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline and the western segment of the Second West-East Gas Pipeline were put into operation respectively.
On January 20, 2010, after a 20-day preparation for pressure boosting, the 2,745.9km long western segment of the Second West-East Gas Pipeline was ready for gas delivery and began to distribute gas to the Second Shaan-Jing Gas Pipeline.
Zhongwei-Jingbian branch is a cross-link line of the West-East Gas Pipelines and Shaan-Jing Gas Pipelines. Jingbian station dispatches imported Central Asian gas to Eastern China through the First West-East Gas Pipeline, and to Beijing and surrounding regions through the Shaan-Jing Gas Pipelines.
Currently, the gas production on the right bank of Amu Darya in Turkmenistan is well under way. The daily input volume at the initial station at Horgos is 6.6 million cubic meters, and the pumping pressure at Jingbian station is 5.16 Mpa. The Central Asian gas is expected to arrive Beijing in three days. Meanwhile, construction of the eastern segment of the pipeline is putting forward smoothly, with 1,560 kilometers already been wielded.
The Second West-East Gas Pipeline is a single project with a design capacity of 30 billion cubic meters per annum, will travel 8,653km through 15 provinces and regions from Xinjiang’s Horgos to Shanghai in the east, and to the south reaches at Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
The First West-East Gas Pipeline, 3,843km in length, runs from Tarim in Xinjiang to Shanghai with its gas supply covering Central and Eastern China. It became operational on October 1, 2004, capable to transport 12 billion cubic meters annually.
The Second Shaan-Jing Gas Pipeline became operational in July 2005. It runs from Jingbian in Shaanxi Province to Beijing via Shanxi and Hebei, with a total length of 935.4km and an annual deliverability of 12 billion cubic meters.