PetroChina Begins Largest Overseas Joint-Venture Natural Gas Purification Plant in Dazhou

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Construction of PetroChina Company Limited's (SHA:601857) (Beijing) Xuanhua Natural Gas Purification Plant began in Xiaba Town, Dazhou City, in Southwest China's Sichuan province, on August 5, 2010. This marks the beginning of the Luojiazhai Gas Field in northeast Sichuan's High-Sulfur Content Natural Gas Development Zone, the largest onshore oil and gas overseas joint venture development project in China.

Among other leaders and representatives who attended the cornerstone-laying ceremony were Li Chengyun, the deputy governor of Sichuan province; Zhao Zhengzhang, the vice president of PetroChina; and Isikeli Taureka, the president of Chevron Texaco (China) Energy Company.

"The northeast Sichuan natural gas project is the largest onshore oil and gas overseas joint venture project from PetroChina," said Zhao. The area is rich in natural gas resources; so far, six gas fields, including the Luojiazhai Gas Field, have been discovered in the plot of land. The plot has become the key area for PetroChina's capacity construction in the Sichuan-Chongqing region.

The project will be built in three phases. The initial stage will include the building of 14 shafts; a 3 million-cubic-meter-per-day purification device; four industrial fields; two gas-collection stations; a gas-collection end terminal; 11 line-valve rooms; 40.8 kilometers of gas-collection trunk lines; 21.6 kilometers of gas-exploitation lines; and a sulfur-processing device. The Xuanhan Purification Plant will be furnished with three sets of processing devices capable of handling 9 million cubic meters of natural gas with high sulfur content.

Natural gas purification is an important process for the development of a gas field with high sulfur content. The Xuanhua Natural Gas Purification Plant is developed with advanced technologies from PetroChina and its partner, Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) (San Ramon, California).

In the past 10 years, PetroChina produced 113 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Sichuan Basin, accounting for about 22% of total output in China. PetroChina also has accelerated the development of gas fields with high sulfur content in the Southwest China region. In December 2007, PetroChina signed the joint venture contract with Chevron, and the Northeast Sichuan Natural Gas Project was taken into effect in February 2008.

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