China CNPC to link north and northeastern gas pipes
BEIJING, Feb 28 (Reuters) - China National Petroleum Corp has started laying a gas pipeline that will connect pipe networks in northern China to the northeast of the country and better guarantee supplies to the Chinese capital, the China Petroleum Daily said on Thursday.
The line, with a capacity of 9 billion cubic metres a year, runs 320 km from Langfang to Qinhuangdao, which are both in Hebei province, and would enable Beijing, neighbouring Tianjin and their surrounding regions to tap the fuel from northeastern China as well as from overseas, the company newspaper said.
The report did not say when the pipeline would be ready for use or how much investment was needed.
China National Petroleum Corp, or CNPC, is the parent of PetroChina (0857.HK)(601857.SS)(PTR.N).
China is anxious to expand its use of natural gas, as its over-reliance on coal has caused serious environmental damage.
To clean Beijing's smoggy sky ahead of the summer Olympics, China's largest gas-consuming city will secure a record 6.8 billion cubic metres of gas delivered through long-distance pipelines from the country's remote western regions this year, a volume accounting for nearly 10 percent China's total output in 2007.
(Reporting by Jim Bai; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)
