2010-06-08 22:06

URUMQI - Leading Chinese power company Huaneng said Tuesday it has launched a 26 billion yuan ($3.8 billion) synthetic natural gas (SNG) project in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to boost energy exploration and production there.

The SNG project based in Qitai county of Xinjiang will turn coal from the Dajing mining area in the East Junggar coalfields into natural gas which will be transported to energy-hungry regions outside of Xinjiang, China Huaneng Group said.

The first stage of the project's construction will be completed by 2013 and it will have an annual natural gas output of 4 billion cubic meters, said a corporate source.

The gas sales will generate 7 billion yuan in annual revenue and 2.5 billion yuan in annual profits and taxes, the company said.

Zhang Tingke, deputy president of China Huaneng Group, said the SNG project, the biggest of the kind in the region, will be environmentally-friendly and energy-conserving.

The power giant also announced Monday it would lavish more than 100 billion yuan in the Xinjiang region over the next ten years to boost energy exploration in the Junggar Basin, the Turpan Basin and Hami.

Huaneng's move echoes the central government's support package for Xinjiang region unveiled at meeting held in Beijing last month.

The central government's support package stressed that the region's natural resources should be developed in their own time while the construction of energy projects should be accelerated.