The "Sichuan-East China Gas Project", which is a significant project during the period of China's 11th Five-Year-Long National Development Program, was officially initiated on 31 August. Zeng Peiyan, who is Vice Premier of the State Council, attended the ceremony for initiation of this project in Beijing. Zeng Peiyan remarked, this project is a new "large energy artery" of China following the project "West Gas to East China", and is of great significance for propelling the adjustment of the energy source and facilitating West China to garner advantages in economic development based on its rich resources. Zeng further pointed out that, it is necessary to intensify the organization and coordination work, ensure the quality and safety of construction work, strengthen basic resources, make reasonable arrangements for utilization of resources, and strive for allowing this project to become a world-leading pipelining establishment.

Zeng Peiyan also noted, this project has to meet harsh technical challenges, as its pipelines have to run across certain mountainous regions in the west of Hubei Province and the East of Chongqing Municipality, plus some watery regions in other few provinces (where the natural geographic conditions are rather complicated), and span over the Yangtze River for 5 times. Thus, it is necessary to adhere to the guiding principle of "put quality and safety first" in the construction course, use the proven experience of similar long-length transmission pipelining projects at home and abroad for reference, and construct this project by use of sophisticated techniques. The leading group of this project shall discharge its responsibilities entirely; while relevant enterprises shall make more input, and also intensify their efforts, in prospecting for natural gas in Sichuan Basin, strive for scooping accurate information regarding the scale and reserves of natural gas, thus to ensure the effective utilization of natural gas resources.

This project starts from Dazhou City in Sichuan Province in the west, runs across 6 provinces and 2 municipalities, before ending on Shanghai. Its trunk line has a total length of 1,700 km, and constitutes a primary component part of China's backbone natural gas pipeline network. The Puguang Gas Field, being a major gas field under this project, has its economic reserves known as 356.1 billion cubic meters, and is the largest-scale integral gas field in the southern marine facies domain of the day, while boasting a rosy future of resources development.