China is considering developing synthetic natural gas (SNG) projects from coal with a total capacity of 200 bcm. Coal would be mined and converted to SNG in remote coal-rich regions of China, such as Xinjiang or Inner Mongolia (80% of the projects).
Beiing has set a production target of 15-18 bcm/year of SNG by 2015 (from almost none at present). So far, four projects with a combined capacity of 15.1 bcm/year have been approved by the government, while another 10 projects totalling 62 bcm have received approval to start pre-phase work; the other projects are still in the planning stage. SNG would be transported to the eastern coast by new SNG pipelines. A first SNG pipeline with a capacity of 30 bcm/year was commissioned in July 2013 between Yining and Khorgas in Xinjiang; it will eventually connect SNG plants in Yining to the third West East Pipeline, currently under construction by CNPC. Another 12 mcm/d SNG pipe was commissioned in the Liaoning province in October 2013. Additional SNG pipelines are under construction, such as a 360 km pipe from Keqi (Inner Mongolia) to Beijing.
However, SNG production would have a very high environmental impact, with 6-10 litres of fresh water required to produce 1 m3 of SNG, compared with 0.1-0.2 litre for shale gas production. Moreover, the 40 proposed SNG projects would produce 110 GtCO2 over 40 years, which nears China's CO2 emissions over the 1971-2011 period.