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The northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi is experiencing a natural gas shortage of 100,000 cu m each day and two local oil and gas producers have suspended part of their supply to industry to ensure residents have enough to use.
The Xinjiang Oil Field Company and the Tuha Oil Field Company, both under the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), have altogether increased their daily supply of natural gas to 1.34 million cu m to the city, said a spokesman from Xinjiang Fuel Gas Group Company.
The Xinjiang Oil Field Company alone has increased its daily supply from 710,000 to 810,000 cu m, said Sun Xiaogang, the company's deputy general manager.
Meanwhile, the municipal government restricted the use of gas by industry to 250,000 cu m a day, the government spokesman said.
'The shortage of natural gas has been relieved a little,' he said.
According to the official, 470,000 homes in city are heated by natural gas and some 7,000 taxi cabs and public buses have been refitted to run on gas.
The shortage of gas in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has caused long queues at gas pumps, which have been forced to suspend operations because of inadequate pressure in the pipelines, he said.
The spokesman blamed the increase in the number of gas subscribers for the gas shortage. He said the daily demand of natural gas in Urumqi was 1.55 million cu m, compared with 1.35 million cu m last winter.
Zhang Hong, vice mayor of Urumqi, said his city is to soon get an extra 200,000 cu m of natural gas a day.
A large gas pump in downtown Urumqi, with the ability to deliver 350,000 cu m of gas a day, is being constructed and is scheduled to be finished in mid-December.
'Completion of the gas pump will greatly alleviate the gas supply crisis in downtown Urumqi,' said the official.
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