Karamay has a long history of petroleum exploration. Some consider Karamay to be the beating heart of China, and the city’s Dushanzi district is at the center of it all.

Dominating the landscape are 30 huge oil storage tanks, containing about 3 million cubic meters of oil inventory. The storage plant was built in October, 2010 as the country’s first national strategic oil reserve.

30 huge oil storage tanks stand in the Dushanzi district of Karamay, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, containing up to 3 million cubic meters of oil. [Photo/kelamayi.com.cn]

Travel 170 kilometers east of the Dushanzi oil reserve and you’ll find the Hutubi gas storage facility, which happens to be China’s largest natural gas storage project. The facility can store a staggering 10.7 billion cubic meters of gas and is the first large-scale auxiliary system on the West-East Gas Pipeline Network.

PetroChina Co, the country’s largest energy producer, plans to build underground natural-gas storage tanks in Hutubi, a county of Karamay in western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, to guard against supply disruption. It has been under construction since July 2011 and is based on the original Hutubi gas project.

Set amid the desert plains of Xinjiang, Hutubi gas storage is China’s largest natural gas storage project. [Photo/kelamayi.com.cn]

Experts predicted that the country’s annual oil consumption will surge to 450 million tons by 2020, while annual gas consumption will rise to 200 billion cubic meters. According to current supply levels, China will face serious oil and gas shortages at that time, exposing the country’s energy industries to massive price fluctuations and socio-economic instability.

To counter this, Hutubi gas storage will play an important role in seasonal peak shaving and emergency storage. It was put into trial operation on July 14, 2013, and achieved an annual transmission capacity of 1.21 billion cubic meters.

The Hutubi facility produced about 1.82 billion cubic meters of gas inventory in 2014, which effectively relieved winter gas shortages in Xinjiang and secured the country’s strategic energy reserve.

The plant primarily serves the First West-East and Second West-East gas pipelines that run from Xinjiang to the eastern coast of China. It will also ensure a steady gas supply to the gas pipeline network and promote local economic development.

Now, oil and gas from Central Asia and Russia are flowing into the Dushanzi oil storage tanks and the Hutubi gas storage facility. Karamay is aiming to become a national base for oil and gas reserves and a world class oil city.

30 huge oil storage tanks stand in the Dushanzi district of Karamay, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, containing up to 3 million cubic meters of oil. [Photo/kelamayi.com.cn]

Edited by Jacob Hooson