CNPC building China's first shale gas pipeline

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), the country's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, has started building the country's first dedicated shale gas pipeline in southwest China's Sichuan Province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday. The 92.8-km pipeline will link gas wells in the Changning block to an existing gas line that leads to neighboring Yunnan Province, CNPC said on its website, according to Xinhua. The new pipeline is designed to have a daily transport volume of 4.5 million cubic meters. Experts have estimated that China, the world's second-biggest energy user after the US, holds rich recoverable shale gas resources, though they have warned that a number of obstacles, notably technologies and costs, stand in the way of capitalizing on these reserves, the report said. Although deemed too costly to extract, shale gas has been viewed as an important supplement for China owing to the country's soaring demand for energy amid rapid economic growth, it added.