(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-27 13:58

BEIJING - China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest oil producer, announced Monday that route of China's second West-East natural gas pipeline has been basically decided.

The pipeline will go through 13 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to transmit natural gas from central Asian countries, including Turkmenistan, and Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to energy-thirsty eastern and southern China, including East China's Shanghai and South China's Guangdong Province.

Construction of the project will be launched in 2008 and natural gas supply will start in 2010. The designed annual natural gas transmission volume will be 30 billion cubic meters per year, according to CNPC.

Total length of the pipeline is over 7,000 kilometers, with the main line being 4,859 kilometers long.