Singapore (Platts)--16Dec2011/103 am EST/603 GMT

The transmission rate of the Central Asia natural gas pipeline will reach 30 Bcm/year in June 2012, up from the current transmission rate of 17 Bcm/year, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. said Friday.

China has imported a total of 19.5 Bcm of natural gas since Turkmenistan began started supplying gas from late 2009, via the Central Asia pipeline's A and B lines, according to a report in the company newsletter, China Petroleum Daily.

Turkmenistan began delivering gas to China late 2009 through a 1,911 km pipeline that runs through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and enters China in the northwestern Xinjiang province.

In a deal signed in 2006, the Turkmen government undertook to export a total of 30 Bcm/year of gas to China for 30 years. Total imports will be increased by an additional 10 Bcm/year by 2015, following another agreement signed in August 2008.

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The Central Asia pipeline connects to the western section of the second West-to-East pipeline within China, which spans a combined length of 8,653 kilometers.

The second West-East pipeline, which was built in two sections, passes through 15 Chinese regions and consists of one major line and eight sub-lines.

The western section, which starts from Korgas in Xinjiang province goes to the Ningxia and Shaanxi provinces in northwestern China. This segment came on stream in late 2009.

The eastern section, which commenced operations June 30, is designed to link Ningxia to Shanghai in eastern China as well as Guangzhou and Hong Kong in the south.

Meanwhile, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Uzbekistan on Thursday on the start of construction of the Central Asia pipeline's "C" line in Uzbekistan, CNPC said.

The Central Asia pipeline C line will span 1,840 km and has a designed transmission capacity of 25 Bcm/year, CNPC said in the report.

The new line will start to supply gas in January 2014, and gas transmission is expected to reach its designed capacity by December 2015, it said.

CNPC is also expected to start constructing the third West-East pipeline -- which will receive gas from the C line -- within China this year. The 5,200 km pipeline project will include one artery, six branch lines, three gas storage facilities and one LNG terminal.

The third West-East pipeline is expected to cost an estimated $2.2 billion. Work on a fourth and fifth West-East gas pipelines will begin after 2015, and both pipelines will have a capacity of 30 Bcm/year each.

--Calvin Lee, calvin_lee@platts.com

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