China's 4,000-km natural gas pipeline, linking natural gas-rich Xinjiang in the northwest with east China's Shanghai, will officially start commercial operation Thursday, an energy official said Monday.

"Opening of the pipeline would greatly increase energy supply in east China," said Xu Dingming, head of the energy bureau of theNational Development and Reform Commission.

The east-west natural gas transmission project, a landmark project in China's mammoth western development drive, has a designed capacity of 12 billion cubic meters, but Xu said the state would strive to lift the volume to 17 billion or 18 billion cubic meters as soon as possible.

The state has also built a natural gas-fired power plant in theregion to alleviate electricity shortages in east China.

According to an official survey, the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang alone has 7.96 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves, enough to sustain stable supply for 30 years.

Xu said the project will improve China's energy structure. China consumed less than 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas in2004, accounting for less than 3 percent of China's primary energyconsumption, far below the world average.

He said the response from customers in Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, which hosted the end section of the pipeline, was active.

According to Xu, natural gas is a clean fuel and has high thermal efficiency.

Construction of the west-east natural gas transmission project,which covers Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, started in July 2002 and was completed on Oct. 1, 2004.

Source: Xinhua