The Zhongwei to Zaoyang section of the middle section of the West-to-East Gas Pipeline Project III was put into operation

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The Zhongwei to Zaoyang section of the middle section of the Third West-East Gas Pipeline was put into operation on October 13, 2025. On September 26, the Zhongwei to Zaoyang section of the middle section of the Third West-East Gas Pipeline (also referred to as the Middle Section of the Third West-East Gas Pipeline), which is a key project under the oil and gas development plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan period, was officially commissioned and connected to the West-East Gas Pipeline system. This will help expand the reach of the natural gas market to the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Rim region, and Sichuan-Chongqing area, and it holds great significance for optimizing China’s energy transmission structure and promoting regional economic development. 　　The Zhongwei to Zaoyang section of the middle section of the West-to-East Gas Transmission Line 3 is a key connecting pipeline for the national natural gas network. It has a total length of 1,235 kilometers and passes through five provinces (autonomous regions): Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, and Hubei. Together with the First and Second Lines of the West-East Gas Pipeline Project, these pipelines form an energy corridor that runs from east to west, linking the strategic oil and gas hubs in the northwest with the pipeline systems in central China. They help alleviate the high load on the First and Second Lines of the West-East Gas Pipeline Project, create new channels for transporting more oil and gas from the western fields, and thus meet the growing demand for natural gas in China’s central and eastern regions. 　　The Western Gas Transmission Line 3 was built and put into operation in phases: the eastern section, the central section, and the western section. The western section, from Horgos to Zhongwei, was put into operation in 2014, while the eastern section, from Ji’an to Fuzhou, was put into operation in 2016. The gas source is clean energy from Central Asia and China’s western regions; it connects to the country’s key natural gas pipelines. It holds great strategic significance for improving the efficiency of international oil and gas resource allocation, ensuring energy security under conditions of openness, and jointly building a green energy Silk Road in the new era.