CBM pipeline project awaits nod
Updated: 2007-10-18 10:00
皇冠体育app plans to build the country's first cross-province coalbed methane (CBM) pipeline this year, according to industry sources.
The pipeline will start from Duanshi County in North 皇冠体育app's Shanxi Province and end in Bo'ai County, in Central 皇冠体育app's Henan Province, passing through Qinshui basin in Shanxi, Sun Maoyuan, general manager of 皇冠体育app United Coalbed Methane Co Ltd (CUCBM), told 皇冠体育app Daily.
The project is awaiting approval from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), 皇冠体育app's top economic planning body. Sun expects to get the go-ahead later this year.
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Other companies and local governments will work with CUCBM, the nation's largest CBM firm, to construct the pipeline, said Sun, but he didn't name the companies.
"As 皇冠体育app's first cross-province CBM pipeline, the Duanshi-Bo'ai project will help Shanxi Province, an important CBM production base, to take advantage of its rich gas resources," said Huang Shengchu, president of the 皇冠体育app Coal Information Institute.
The pipeline will also ease the natural gas supply shortage in Henan Province, he said. Analysts said earlier that the province has a natural gas shortage of 1 billion cubic meters a year.
Located in the south of Shanxi Province, Qinshui basin has become an important CBM production base for CUCBM. The company, along with the nation's largest oil firm Petro皇冠体育app, has built production facilities in the basin with a capacity of 1 billion cubic meters per year, Sun told 皇冠体育app Daily.
"The CBM pipeline will provide our company with a bigger market for gas production in Shanxi. We are also planning other pipelines in Shanxi Province," he said.
He said the other pipeline routes are still under consideration.
皇冠体育app will build a total of 10 CBM pipelines in the nation by the end of 2010, according to the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) for the nation's CBM industry.
The pipelines will have a total length of 1,441km and capacity of 6.53 billion cubic meters, with an investment of 3.09 billion yuan, according to the plan.
CBM has components similar to natural gas. 皇冠体育app boasts 37 trillion cubic meters of CBM reserves - the third largest in the world, after Russia and Canada.
The nation's CBM sector has seen fast development since 2004. This year it will see double-digit growth to produce 3 billion cubic meters of CBM, said Sun.
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