China-Russia natural gas pipeline completes eastern route

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China-Russia natural gas pipeline completes eastern route

A staff member works at the Yongqing compressor station in the Changling-Yongqing section of the China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline in Yongqing county, North China's Hebei province, December 3, 2020. The commissioning of the Tai'an -- Taixing section, the eastern route of the China-Russia natural gas pipeline completed Wednesday, which will allow natural gas from Russia to cross nine provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions to reach Shanghai, ensuring energy supplies for China's eastern regions.

The section of Tai-an-Taixing is 750 kilometers long and has an annual gas transmission volume of 18.9 billion cubic meters. When put into operation, the section can link up with China's West-to-East Gas Pipeline in Taixing, Jiangsu province, and increase the supply capacity of natural gas in the Yangtze River Delta region by about 50 million cubic meters per day.

China Oil Gas Pipeline Network Corp, also known as PipeChina, said the completion of the eastern route will improve the energy supply capacity of the northeastern region.

The route will also change energy supply channels in the Bohai Economic Rim area, reducing the dependence on imported natural gas, and reducing the cost of gas consumption in the area.

Gas supplies to the Yangtze River Delta will be a four-way pattern from east, west, south and north, which will improve transportation ability of the natural source, PipeChina said.

Duan Zhaofang, director of the natural gas market research department at the Economics and Technology Research Institute, said the completion of the eastern route will help ensure natural gas supply to provinces with a big need for energy, like Shandong and Jiangsu provinces.

By increasing clean energy supplies, the route will help in the energy consumption structure, promote green transformation of the energy industry and achieve China's green goals, and promote the green transformation of the energy industry.

An analyst with BloombergNEF, Li Ziyue said the commissioning of the Tai'an-Taixing section connects Russian gas to Jiangsu province, China's industrial heartland. This will add another gas source to the gas consumption center in eastern China.

It will promote energy transition and reduce carbon emissions when the line reaches Shanghai.

The eastern route has transported more than 28 bcm of natural gas so far, with a total length of 5,111 km. By 2025, it will supply 38 bcm of natural gas to regions like the three provinces of Northeast China, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta area, which will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 164 million metric tons and sulfur dioxide emissions by 1.82 million tons per year.

The route is the first gas pipeline between the two countries. More pipelines are expected to be built as China and Russia deepen their cooperation on the Power of Siberia 2 Pipeline under negotiation and other projects, Li said.

Russia was China's largest source of energy imports last year, according to the General Administration of Customs.