CNPC on Wednesday inked a joint stock and cooperation framework agreement on the Third West-East Gas Pipeline in Beijing, with the National Council for Social Security Fund, Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Fund, Baosteel, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
As shareholders, the first three parties will invest in the project. Private capital from ICBC will flow to the project through the urban infrastructure facilities investment fund. This is an attempt to bring private capital into major energy and infrastructure projects which used to be funded by public capital.
The Third West-East Gas Pipeline, consisting of one trunk, five branch trunks and three branches, will have a total length of over 5,000 kilometer and a designed annual delivery capacity of 30 billion cubic meters. With gas supply from the Central Asia, the new pipeline starts at Horgos in Xinjiang and will end at Fuzhou in Fujian. The whole project is estimated to be operational in 2015.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, June 1, 2012