Photo: Screenshot from the CCTV News

Air-jack dome lifting for the No.3 storage tank of the Hainan liquefied natural gas (LNG) Phase II project in Danzhou, South China's Hainan Province, was completed on Tuesday, marking a significant step forward for the nation's oil and gas infrastructure, CCTV News reported. 

The Hainan LNG facility is the first LNG terminal in China to be granted bonded status. The No.3 storage tank has a capacity of 220,000 cubic meters. Its dome weighs 821 tons, and it was lifted to approximately 43 meters, equivalent to a 15-story building, according to the report.

"The project extensively applied digital control methods to monitor the dome's ascent trajectory in real time, ensuring the alignment deviation between the dome and the compression ring was kept within 2 millimeters," Wang Ning, manager of the Hainan LNG Project Division under China Oil & Gas Pipeline Network Corp (PipeChina) Project Management Co, told CCTV News.

The success of the operation opens an "express lane" for subsequent tank construction, laying a solid foundation for the Hainan Free Trade Port's goal of becoming a supply hub for LNG resources in the ASEAN region and a storage and transshipment hub in the Asia-Pacific, Wang said.

Phase I of the Hainan LNG terminal, which is already operational, includes two 160,000 cubic meter LNG storage tanks. Phase II involves the construction of three 220,000 cubic meter pre-stressed concrete full-containment LNG tanks. The Phase II project is almost half complete, and it is scheduled for full completion in 2027, according to the report.

Upon completion, it will add 400 million cubic meters of gas storage capacity, doubling the terminal's storage and peak-shaving capabilities. This will significantly enhance emergency peak-shaving capacity and gas supply security for all of Hainan Island and the coastal regions of South China.

This year, China has accelerated the advancement of major national oil and gas infrastructure projects. A series of cross-provincial trunk pipelines, gas storage and peak-shaving hubs, and strategic energy corridor projects have been intensively rolled out, continuing to strengthen the national oil and gas network.

In Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province, construction of the Changchun Connecting Compressor Station for the Hulin-Changchun Natural Gas Pipeline Project was completed following the completion of the final weld joint test. The achievement facilitates connectivity among the Harbin-Shenyang Pipeline, the Changchun-Jilin Pipeline, and the Hulin-Changchun Pipeline, CCTV News reported.

Several new projects have been launched this year, including the Suzhou-Anhui-Henan Trunk Line, the Wen 23-Anqing Natural Gas Pipeline, and the Northern Trunk Line of the Shandong Provincial Pipeline Network. Construction of the second natural gas pipeline for the Sichuan to East Gas Transmission Project, a key project for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, is also accelerating. The tunnel boring and pipeline welding of this project are progressing in parallel, with an annual welding target of 1,000 kilometers.

Upon completion, the Sichuan to East Gas Transmission Project will open a new eastern corridor for natural gas from the Sichuan Basin, strengthening gas supply for the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It will connect inland gas fields with coastal LNG receiving terminals, improving the national gas trunk network and significantly boosting supply guarantee and peak-shaving capabilities, said Gao Jun, manager of the Chongqing Project Division under PipeChina's Project Management Co.

Workers on the main trunk line of the coal-to-natural gas project in Zhundong, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region - the outbound line for China's largest coal-to-gas production base - have completed 118 kilometers of welding. 

PipeChina is constructing 40 key national-level oil and gas pipeline projects, with a total length exceeding 9,000 kilometers. Their sequential completion and commissioning will perfect China's integrated national network for oil and gas transportation, CCTV News reported.

Global Times