China completes construction of first coal-to-gas project

Plant will start supplying gas to Beijing by yearend.

The first phase of the Hexigten coal gasification project in north China is complete and will be ready for production after successful tests. It will be capable of producing 1.33 billion cubic meters of gas each year. The second phase is currently under construction.

The plant is located in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The remaining 100 km section of the transmission pipeline from Chifeng City to Beijing is under construction.

The project, which will be completed in three phases, will have a total capacity of 4 billion cubic meters annually. When all three phases start full production in 2014, the project will be capable of supplying Beijing with 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas, or nearly half of the capital's current annual gas demand.

Hexigten is the first coal-to-gas project approved by China. It began construction in August 2009 and has an investment of US$4.2 billion. Datang Energy Chemical Company Ltd., Beijing Gas Company, China Datang and Tianjin Jinneng jointly invested in the project.

Inner Mongolia has reserves of 800 billion tons of coal, 600 million tons of oil and 167 million cubic meters of natural gas.