SINGAPORE: PipeChina will start operating four major gas pipelines and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal from Thursday after acquiring the assets from Kunlun Energy.

Officially known as China Oil and Gas Pipeline Network, PipeChina is seeking to consolidate China’s trunk oil and gas pipelines and broaden access to energy infrastructure previously controlled by state giants, it said on its official Wechat platform on Wednesday.

Assets acquired from Kunlun Energy include four parallel gas trunk lines connecting China’s top gas fields in the Ordos basin in the north to Beijing, and branch lines such as the one that links to PetroChina-controlled Tangshan LNG terminal.

The pipelines have a combined length of 5,378 kilometers (3,342 miles) and an annual transport capacity of 35 billion cubic meters, PipeChina said.

That’s equivalent to roughly one tenth of China’s gas consumption.

Also part of the acquisition was an LNG receiving terminal in Dalian of northeast Liaoning province, making it the seventh operating facility under PipeChina.

Hong Kong-listed Kunlun Energy, a subsidiary of state energy giant PetroChina, said in late 2020 it would sell its 60% stake in PetroChina Beijing Pipeline Co Ltd and 75% stake in PetroChina Dalian LNG Co Ltd to PipeChina for 40.9 billion yuan ($6.2 billion).