Construction of the gas pipeline linking Zhuhai municipality, in China’s Guangdong province and the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) will be concluded before June, said an official from the National Energy Administration, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua.

Noting that construction of the pipeline by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) began on 8 January, Yang Lei said that the pipeline, which will be 7.7 kilometres long, will have capacity to transport 520 million cubic metres of natural gas per year.

The new pipeline will replace the existing one, which stopped operating in June 2011 because its route was not compatible with urbanisation plans for Zhuhai.

Yang Lei also said that CNOOC this year expected to supply 2.23 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Hong Kong, which is slightly less than the 2.59 billion cubic metres it supplied in 2012. (macauhub)