Trans-China gas challenge full of eastern promise

Picture this: one day in 2003, a Shanghai resident lights a stove and a blue flame flickers to life; it is natural gas from Xinjiang, that has travelled 4,200 kilometres, having criss-crossed mountains, the Yellow River three times, and the Yangtze river twice.

This would be the result of the west-east gas pipeline project scheduled to start construction in the second half of this year and which is expected to benefit people in Shanghai and elsewhere in the coastal region.

Gas will start to flow in 2003 and the project will be fully operational by 2004. It promises gas for 30 years, with annual output of 12 billion cubic metres in the initial phase and 20 billion cubic metres eventually. Costing 120 billion yuan (HK$111 billion), it is believed to be the most ambitious construction project in China after the Three Gorges Dam.

It will originate from the Tarim basin in the western region of Xinjiang, and pass through the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, before reaching Shanghai.

Touted as one of the key projects in the go-west development programme, it is expected to boost the economies of the provinces through which the pipeline will pass and help integrate the economies of the west and east.

It will also help reduce coal-induced pollution as well as meeting the increasing energy needs of the coastal region.