The government of China has given the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) the permission to proceed with the corporation's plan of constructing a section of Power of Siberia's pipeline Line C that will enable Russia to transport gas to China.
The development of project's Line C in China will be kicking off in 2015. Six Chinese provinces will be penetrated by the pipeline's section route: Hebei, Heilongjuang, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanghai and Tianjin.
The pipeline's Chinese section will be comprised of central, southern and northern parts. Once constructed, it is expected to transport 25 Bcm/a of Russia's natural gas coming from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan cities to China.
Line C will be added to the two parallel lines already existing in Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline which runs 1,833 kilometers each. The first line, Line A, became functional in December 2009, while the second line, Line B, started operations in 2010.
The agreement on the exportation of natural gas from Russia to China was closed after a signed contract in May between Gazprom, Russian gas behemoth, and China's CNPC.
The $400 billion contract includes the agreement of a yearly exportation of 38 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia to China for a span of 30 years, which will begin in 2018. The Russian gas will be transported by the various Power of Siberia pipeline branches.
With China's largest energy company handling Line C's construction, proper procedures are being imposed, especially on the safety of workers and contractors.
"We believe in health, safety and environment management, and emphasise the health and safety of our overseas contractors," CNPC said.
"In 2008, there were no accidents during the 5.89 million man hours of production, and no traffic accidents for vehicles travelling a total of 9.95 million kilometres," CNPC added.