China has already built pipelines to bring gas from its far western region of Xinjiang to its booming coast, and is also considering a crude oil and gas pipeline from Russia.

'In the next 12 years, China will build another 150,000 km of pipelines,' Xinhua said in a brief report, without giving further details.

Separately, Xinhua said that the country's largest open-pit coal mine, in the northern region of Inner Mongolia, is ready to open.

The 7 billion yuan (S$1.5 billion) project is run by Shenhua Group, China's top coal producer, and has about 1.73 billion tonnes of coal reserves, the report said.

'Its estimated coal output was forecast at 7 million tonnes in the fourth quarter this year, but the company didn't specify the exact date when the mine would be put into production,' Xinhua added. -- THOMSON REUTERS