By Wan Zhihong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-29 09:49

PetroChina Co Ltd, the listed arm of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), and another CNPC subsidiary will invest a combined 16 billion yuan to build a gas pipeline from China to Turkmenistan.

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"PetroChina and China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corp will each inject eight billion yuan in cash into CNPC Exploration and Development Co Ltd," the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

CNPC Exploration and Development is cooperating with other companies to build a pipeline to transport natural gas purchased by China from Turkmenistan.

CNPC said in August the pipeline would be designed to take 30 billion cubic meters of gas a year. The total project investment is estimated at $7.31 billion.

Turkmenistan has an estimated 23.1 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, and plans to produce up to 240 billion cubic meters a year, according to local media.

China, the world's second biggest energy consumer, plans to boost its natural gas production 50 percent by 2010 to meet increasing demand.

"The nation's gas production will be 90 billion cubic meters in 2010. Natural gas will then account for 5.3 percent of the nation's total energy consumption," Tang Yali, vice-president of PetroChina Natural Gas & Pipeline Co Ltd, said earlier.

China's natural gas demand is projected to reach 140 billion cubic meters in 2010, when the country will import around 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas, he said.

The country's natural gas output was 58.5 billion cubic meters last year. Gas production has seen 14.8 percent growth since 2002.

Last year, PetroChina produced 44 billion cubic meters of natural gas, an increase of 20 percent.

Earlier this month, CNPC signed a 30-year contract with US Chevron Corp to jointly develop a large gasfield in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The 1,969-sq-km gasfield, located in the northeastern part of Sichuan, has proven reserves of 175.97 billion cubic meters, making the CNPC-Chevron tie-up China's largest inland exploration project involving a foreign interest, said a CNPC statement.