Xinhua reported that leading Chinese power company Huaneng said Tuesday it has launched a CNY 26 billion synthetic natural gas project in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to boost energy exploration and production there.

China Huaneng Group said the SNG project based in Qitai County of Xinjiang will turn coal from the Dajing mining area in the East Junggar coalfields into natural gas which will be transported to energy hungry regions outside of Xinjiang.

A corporate source said the first stage of the project construction will be completed by 2013 and it will have an annual natural gas output of 4 billion cubic meters.

The company said the gas sales will generate CNY 7 billion in annual revenue and CNY 2.5 billion in annual profits and taxes.

Mr Zhang Tingke deputy president of China Huaneng Group said the SNG project the biggest of the kind in the region will be environmentally friendly and energy conserving.

The power giant also announced recently that it would lavish more than CNY 100 billion in the Xinjiang region over the next ten years to boost energy exploration in the Junggar Basin the Turpan Basin and Hami.

(Sourced from Xinhua)