Sinopec Corp is pushing ahead with plans to build China's largest coal-to-gas (CTG) plant, with a total investment estimated at $10 billion.<br /> <br /> The plant, located in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is designed with an annual production capacity of 8 billion cubic meters of gas.<br /> <br /> Sinopec is actively pushing forward the Zhundong project and the Xinjiang-Zhejiang-Guangdong pipeline, said company spokesman Lu Dapeng, adding it would take 4-5 years to build the plant after getting final regulatory approval.<br /> <br /> The company is finalizing feasibility studies for the plant, after almost 16 months of work, according to one senior researcher involved in the process. Submitting the studies would be a key step toward winning final government approval.<br /> <br /> Market participants had questioned whether Sinopec would proceed with this CTG project after two pilot projects owned by state-run Datang International Power became a government restructuring target due to cost overruns and poor management.<br /> <br /> China's National Energy Administration has repeatedly called for "cautious" and "orderly" CTG development, with local governments keen to lure big-ticket investments.<br /> <br /> China, the world's top energy user, has made largely untested CTG technology a key part of its strategy to boost the use of cleaner fuels as it battles pollution in its big cities.<br /> <br /> With production from conventional gas fields struggling to keep up with demand, China has increasingly relied on imports piped in from Central Asia plus long-term supply deals for liquefied natural gas.<br /> <br /> <p> China aims to dampen its dependence on imports by using gas converted from coal to supply 12% of the world's No.4 gas market by 2020, up from virtually nothing now. </p> <p style="text-align:center;"> <img src="/upfiles/news/image/20140910/20140910175447_4792.jpg" alt="" /> </p>