OREANDA-NEWS. April 29, 2011. Sinopec (NYSE:SNP) (SNP.NYSE; 600028.SH; 00386.HK ) is to start building a 700-million-cubic-meter natural gas storage b ase in Yingcheng of central China’s Hubei province within 2011, compa ny sources said.

The storage facility involves a total investment of 3 billion yuan.

As a supporting project for the Second West-to-East natural gas pipel ine, construction is scheduled to start within the year and the storag e will mainly service demand in Hubei and the adjacent province of Hun an.

Sources with Sinopec Hubei Wuhan Petroleum Group said that the comp any is to adopt a new natural gas storage technology developed by the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Science s for the gas storage facility.

The technology enables the use of underground space left in exhaust ed salt mines to store natural gas. It will be put into use first in Y ingcheng gas storage base, with the construction of underground natura l gas storage that is 800 meters below the land surface and boasts a m aximum designed capacity of 700 million cubic meters, equal to the cur rent annual natural gas consumption of Wuhan, capital of Hubei provinc e.

Sinopec plans to promote the technology in Qianjiang city in Hubei by building another underground natural gas storage facility upgraded from an old salt mine.