China orders for Rolls-Royce gas turbines

Rolls-Royce recently got a contract from PetroChina, the largest oil and gas producer in China.

The West-East Pipeline Project (WEPP) is the world’s longest natural gas pipeline and this order will take the number of Rolls-Royce RB211 gas turbine compressor packages installed on this pipeline and associated feed and branch lines to 45. This order follows contract awards over the past five years for other major gas pipelines in India, Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan, North America and Algeria.

Valued at $65 million, the contract is for six RB211 gas turbine compressor packages to be installed on one of China’s most important and expensive energy projects, WEPP Line 2. The gas turbine units will be installed at two new compressor stations along the 2,400 km (1,500 mile) Eastern section of the line. They will join six RB211 units currently being installed along the 2,450 km Western section and 19 RB211 compressor sets already in service on WEPP Line 1.

The nineteen RB211 packages currently operating in China have been in service for nearly half-a-million hours, with the longest running engine achieving over 34,000 hours.

WEPP Line 2 will have a total length of 8,859 km made up of one main trunk line of 4,859 km and eight sub-lines. It will transport 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas every year from reserves in Central Asia, across 15 provinces to major regions such as Zhejiang, Shanghai, Guangdong and Hong Kong. This country-wide distribution of gas will help boost China’s clean energy consumption, saving an expected 11 million tonnes of coal usage every year and thereby reducing harmful emissions.