PetroChina and local firms in southwestern Chongqing municipality started building a new underground storage for natural gas, as part of China’s efforts to boost supplies for the cleaner fuel, PetroChina’s parent CNPC said on Tuesday.
The new facility, able to store 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, will be built out of the depleting gas field Tongluoxia in mountainous Chongqing.
PetroChina and a strategic partner will take a combined 57 percent stake in the project and the remaining 43 percent will be taken up by a state-owned Chongqing firm as well as “private capitals”, CNPC said on its news portal.
It did not give details on the investment or names of the local firms.
Beijing has called state energy producers and local piped gas distributors to add storage facilities to cope with demand spikes, after a severe supply crunch last winter exposed the weak link in storages.
When completed in 2020, the Tongluoxia storage will be able to supply 9 million cubic meters of gas a day during peak demand season, enough to cover use by four million households, CNPC said.
Source: Reuters
