Chinese state-owned oil and gas group China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) will start to work on the second section of the first phase of the Tianjin-Inner Mongolia gas pipeline in September 2019.
With a transmission capacity of 20 bcm/year, the 1,279 km gas pipeline will link up coal-to-gas projects in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, the capital city of Beijing and its surrounding regions and the Tianjin LNG terminal. Apart from CNOOC, other investors include Hebei Natural Gas Company and Beijing Gas Group. The construction of the first 413 km section, connecting the Tianjin LNG terminal to pipelines in Hebei province, began in November 2018; so far, 31 km have been completed. The second section of the first phase will add 382 km and is expected to be completed by the end of November 2020, when it will be able to deliver 14 mcm/d (5.1 bcm/year) to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
After a period of gas shortage during the 2017-2018 winter, China has been accelerating the development of gas pipelines to connect its different grids and diversifying its supply sources.