A new joint energy project of Moscow and Beijing promoted today marks a big step in the two nations’ energy collaboration, CGTN reports.
Connecting Shanghai with Heihe in Heilongjiang Province bordering Russia, the state-of-the-art natural gas pipeline traverses nine province-level regions with capacity of 38 bcm p/a that will not only strengthens energy security but will also help modernize large-scale energy projects by leveraging advanced automation technology.
The pipeline’s China section begins in Heihe and transports natural gas from Siberia all the way south to Shanghai: it has 3,000-km section in Russia and a 5,111-km stretch in China.
Namely, the key sections of the pipeline will be autonomously monitored – for the first time in China – by rail-mounted, explosion-proof inspection robots that will perform pre-programmed tasks and collect data in real-time equipped with cameras and infrared imaging devices, which will significantly reduce the need for manual monitoring.
The pipeline that took nearly a decade to be finished will be key in stabilizing eastern China’s natural gas supplies, especially during winter peak and spring demand periods.
