By Wan Zhi Hiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-22 11:13

Several coalbed methane (CBM) pipelines are planned for North China's Shanxi Province, home to one-third of China's coal reserves. With a total investment of over three billion yuan (US$399 million), they will better utilize the province's vast CBM resources - a coal mine gas with components similar to natural gas.

China plans to build 10 CBM pipelines by the end of 2010, according to the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) for the CBM industry. Nine of them will start from or go through Shanxi Province.

The 10 pipelines will have a length of 1,441 kilometers, with a total capacity of 6.53 billion cubic meters and require an investment of 3.09 billion yuan, according to the plan.

"We will start construction on four to five pipelines among the 10 during the 11th Five-year Plan period," Sun Maoyuan, general manager of China United Coalbed Methane Co Ltd (CUCBM), tells China Business Weekly. "Currently our company is planning for some pipelines in the eastern and central parts of Shanxi, and we are still considering locations and routes."

CUCBM, the nation's largest CBM firm, together with other companies, are also planning the first cross-province pipeline in the nation. The project will link Duanshi County in Shanxi with Bo'ai County in Henan, passing through the city of Jincheng in Shanxi Province.

The 120 kilometer-long pipeline has a designed capacity of one billion cubic meters. The project's total investment will be between 400 and 500 million yuan, Sun says.

The Duanshi-Bo'ai line will ease the natural gas shortage in Henan Province, which has seen increasing demand for energy in recent years. Some analysts estimate the natural gas supply shortage in Henan to be about one billion cubic meters each year.

"For example, a color TV tube plant located at Bo'ai County, which is also the end of our pipeline, needs 500 million cubic meters of CBM a year," Sun says. "The company is eager to get the gas resources from Shanxi."

CUCBM has developed Jincheng City, located in the Qinshui basin in the southeast of Shanxi, into a large CBM production base for the company. "Now together with the nation's largest oil company, PetroChina, we have built production facilities with a capacity of one billion cubic meters per year in the basin," Sun says.

According to industry insiders, some CBM pipelines will be connected with the nation's west-east gas pipeline, but Sun's company has no plans to link the CBM pipelines with the west-east line.

"The CBM pipelines are low pressure while the west-east line is high pressure. Linking the two pipelines will result in a waste of money and energy for us," he says.

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