China Oil & Gas Pipeline Network Corp, China's largest energy infrastructure owner also known as PipeChina, announced on Wednesday the official launch of construction on West-East Gas Pipeline 4.

The project, which aims to further enhance natural gas pipeline networks across the country, will further ensure sufficient domestic gas supply and carbon emissions control, said the company.

With a full length of 3,340 kilometers, the gas pipeline originates in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. It will be connected to west-east gas pipelines 2 and 3 after completion, which will further strengthen the project's gas supply capacity while boosting energy optimization in the country, the company added.

West-East Gas Pipeline 2 runs from Horgos, Xinjiang to Guangzhou, Guangdong province and pipeline 3 stretches from Horgos to Fuzhou, Fujian province.

An analyst said China's west-to-east gas transmission project boosts natural gas supplies across the country and facilitates low-carbon transformation of the country's energy consumption structure.

Once in operation, natural gas resources will be effectively transmitted to meet market demand in East China and the layout of the natural gas pipeline network in central and eastern regions will also be improved, said Cao Lujia, an analyst with BloombergNEF.

Cao said China has accelerated natural gas grid construction during 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20). However, more pipelines need to be built to satisfy ever-growing demand for gas across the country.

China's efforts to step up natural gas pipeline network construction in recent years have been essential to ensure that China's gas supply system can continue to meet the country's growing energy needs, she added.

The west-to-east gas pipeline, with an annual transmission capacity of 77 billion cubic meters, has sent around 750 billion cubic meters of natural gas to East China since it officially began operating in 2004, said PipeChina.

In 2021, the annual volume of natural gas transported by the pipeline has, for the first time, exceeded 100 billion cubic meters, it said earlier.

China's west-to-east gas transmission project has helped increase the share of natural gas in China's primary energy consumption to 8.4 percent in 2021 from around 2.4 percent in 2003, benefiting nearly 500 million residents nationwide.