"We've made rapid progress in the project's feasibility study and we are well prepared to kick it off in the near future," said Zhang Guobao, vice-minister of the commission.

Zhang, also a team leader of the project's national leadership group, said his team has examined China International Project Consulting Company's review report on the feasibility study submitted by

China National Petroleum Corp and other departments this April.

The pipeline is a key project in the nation's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05), and is listed as one of the first groups of large-scale, key and huge investment programs in the western development strategy. The 4,000-kilometre pipeline starts from the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, proceeds across seven other provinces and ends in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta area.

It will involve a fixed asset investment of 40 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion), with a designed annual delivery capacity of 12-20 billion cubic metres, according to Zhang.

By 2004, the entire pipeline will be connected and brought into operation, with a targeted capacity of 20 billion cubic metres per year.

Zhang said the feasibility study included of discovering colossal gas deposits, preparing quality pipes, finding out the market demand and the involvement of foreign partners.

Statistics show that the gas deposits of the Tarim Basin, the main supplier, amount to 8.39 trillion cubic metres, with an explored reserve of 562 billion cubic metres. The Ordos Basin, the supporting source, has 750 billion cubic metres known reserves.

In addition, the country's pipe manufacturers have produced quality products but Zhang, at present, will not disclose which enterprises have won the bid to produce the essential network.

According to feasibility study, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan provinces in East and Central China and Shanghai are the gas's potential markets.

(China Daily 09/25/2001)