BEIJING - China on Friday kicked off a project to build the eastern most part of its second West-East natural gas pipeline to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, a move to increase the energy-scarce city's access to the fuel.

The pipeline will runs over the ocean bed between the southern Chinese city Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It is part of the country's second West-East pipeline that carries natural gas from central Asia to China's two economic hubs, the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas.

With the country's biggest diameter sub-sea pipeline, the project will stretch 29.04 kilometers, and will be able to transport up to 6 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year.

PetroChina Company Limited and Hong Kong Castle Peak Power Company Limited will jointly build the pipeline. PetroChina will take 60 percent of the joint venture, while the Hong Kong company will get the remaining 40 percent.

The second West-East pipeline is China's first import corridor for natural gas. With one trunk line and eight sub-lines, it runs 8,704 kilometers across 14 provincial regions, and can supply 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.

Construction on the eastbound pipeline began on Feb 22, 2008, and the trunk line was put into operation on June 30, 2011.

Natural gas from central Asia started to be pumped through a pipeline to Hong Kong's neighboring Guangdong province at the end of 2011.