PetroChina, which is raising up to 66.8 billion yuan from a share offering in the mainland, has budgeted 102 billion yuan for its second west-east natural gas pipeline project importing gas from Turkmenistan to eastern and southern China, according to the chief accountant of its gas and pipeline unit. Zhang Yaoming says construction on the project is expected to start next year and be completed in about 2010, with the firm securing government approval before the end of the year. The 8,000km, 30 billion cubic metre a year pipeline will stretch from Urumqi in Xinjiang to Nanchang, Jiangxi province.