Chinese oil firm PetroChina (0857.HK) is considering building a second east-west gas pipeline across China with total investment of 102 billion yuan ($13.63 billion), a senior executive told a conference call on Thursday.
Zhang Yaoming said the pipeline would have designed capacity of 30 billion cubic metres a year and cover 8,000 km.
"The total project investment is 102 billion yuan," he said. "The domestic portion of the pipeline will start in Xinjiang, pass through Urumqi, Xian, Wuhan, Nanchang, then branch east to the Yangtze river delta and south to the Pearl river delta.
"It will use mainly domestic gas but be supplemented from Central Asian sources. We are now conducting a feasibility study which will be submitted by the end of this year to the government in Beijing. Construction is expected to start next year and completion around 2010."