World Factory Network News At about 14:00 on January 20, the Jingbian Liaison Station of the West-East Gas Pipeline began to deliver natural gas to Beijing and other places. It is expected that natural gas from Central Asia will reach Beijing within three days. This marks the second line (western section) of the West-East Gas Pipeline Project officially put into operation.

　　Line Map of the Second West-East Gas Pipeline

　　The Second West-East Gas Pipeline Project is the single largest investment project since the founding of New China. The Second West-East Gas Pipeline Project starts from Horgos Port in Xinjiang in the west, reaches Guangzhou in the south, and reaches Shanghai in the east, passing through Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, In 14 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, including Anhui, the total length of the main line is 4895 kilometers. With several branch lines, the total length of the pipeline (main line and eight branch lines) exceeds 9102 kilometers. Three underground gas storages will be constructed on the second line of the West-East Gas Pipeline. One of them is a salt cavern gas storage in Yunying, Hubei, and the other two are aquifer gas storages in Henan Pingdingshan and Nanchang Maqiu.

　　The designed gas transmission capacity of the project is 30 billion cubic meters per year, and the total investment is about 142 billion yuan. It is planned that the western section will be completed and put into operation by the end of 2009 and the whole line will be completed by 2011. It is my country's first large-scale pipeline project to introduce overseas natural gas resources.