A continuance of explosive economic development and increasing concern on environment in northeast Asia has stimulated a significant rise in natural gas demand-a high quality primary energy. It is predicated that the gas demand in northeast Asia will likely to reach 330.4 × 10~9 m~3/a by the year 2010, with the demand of China, Japan and South Korea totaling 276 × 10~9 m~3/a. At present, the natural gas supply in Japan and South Korea mainly relies on LNG imports from southeast Asia, Australia, Middle East and Alaska while China depends on domestic production. The current gas supply structure in northeast Asia can hardly meet the expending gas demand in 21st century. East Siberia and Far East of Russia, west of China and Central Asia are rich in natural gas resources and are highly potential to alleviate the gas shortage in northeast Asia in the next century.This paper compares the economic feasibility of gas transportation via pipeline with the transportation via LNG. Results show that pipeline transmission, in most cases, is the best solution. Ways and opportunities for effectively lowering the pipeline cost are presented in this paper, adding that the optimum design is the base for cost reduction. Key technical parameters, such as pipeline diameter, operating pressure, transmission temperature, and compression ratio are influential factors on pipeline cost. Based on extensive calculations and analysis, the optimum range and possible development trend of these parameters are put forward.
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