OREANDA-NEWS. August 28, 2012. A natural gas pipeline network in the northern Chinese province of Hebei will cover every county and more than 100 cities in three years, local media reported.

Hebei's gas grid covers more than 30 cities and counties at present, according to a report in the Hebei Daily. Construction of a major gas infrastructure project in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei, will be completed by the end of this year, the report added.

Cities in both Hebei and other provinces are investing in gas infrastructure in line with a central government push to wean China off dirty coal and oil. Beijing hopes these so-called gasification projects will see gas account for 10 percent of the national energy mix by 2020, up from five percent in 2011.

Hebei Natural Gas Co. Ltd. is working with PetroChina Kunlun Gas Co. Ltd., a unit of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), on gasification projects in 10 cities and counties located in the heart of the province.

Hebei Gas is 55 percent-held by China Suntien Green Energy Corp. Ltd., the listed clean energy unit of Hebei Construction and Investment Group Co. Ltd. Hong Kong, while China Gas Co. Ltd., better known as Towngas, owns 45 percent.

The Hebei branch of the National Development and Reform Commission endorsed the gasification projects in February 2012, according to an announcement by Hebei Construction and Investment.

The projects will source gas from CNPC’s 2nd Shaan-Jing Gas Pipeline (SJP) at Hengshui City, and involve laying 117.8 kilometers of pipeline and building five offtake stations.

The projects are still being prepared, and a specific deadline or budget has not been determined yet, a Hebei Gas engineer told.

Hebei is a transit corridor for three long-distance pipelines that form the SJP network. The province consumed 3.61 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas last year, nearly triple the 1.27 bcm of gas it produced.

Gas accounted for only 1.44 percent of Hebei’s energy mix in 2010, according to a report published by the local branch of National Statistics Bureau in June.