BEIJING will soon approve a multi-million-dollar joint venture coal slurry pipeline project with the United States to supply power to the energy-strained coastal region, sources said.
The pipeline will run from Yu county, near the coal-producing city of Yangquan in central Shanxi province, via Hebei province to the city of Weifang in Shandong province.
It will later be extended to the coastal port of Qingdao. The completed pipeline will be 805 kilometres long.
Sources said the US$888.6 million (HK$6.8 billion) joint project between China and the American coal company, Custon, was now being studied by the State Planning Commission. The China International Engineering Consulting Corporation has endorsed the feasibility study.
According to the China Coal Journal, the building of the pipeline is to begin this year and is scheduled for completion by the end of 1997.
The first phase of the project will supply five million tonnes of coal annually for the Weifang power plant in Shandong, a Ministry of Coal Industry official said.
He said the extension of the pipeline from Weifang to Qingdao and the construction of other related port facilities would be decided after the completion of the first phase.