Xinjiang’s coal and gas

Beijing will do all it can to hang on to Xinjiang.
Besides its strategic location next to Afghanistan, it holds one quarter of China’s petroleum reserves and 40% of its coal.
Xinjiang also holds 17.4 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves.
In 2005, the West-East Gas Pipeline was built to supply gas from Xinjiang’s Tarim Basin (as well as from Central Asia) to Shanghai.
This will help reduce China’s huge dependence on coal eventually.
While the rest of the world uses gas for 25% of its energy consumption, the figure for China is only 2.5%.
Beijing plans to build another couple of pipelines in the province to fund its ‘Go West’ development programme i.e. do something about the impoverished western half of the country.
EurAsia is driven by competition over minerals, energy and pipelines.