Jan. 22, 2010 (China Knowledge) - China National Petroleum Corp, the largest oil and gas producer and supplier in the country, said that the natural gas pipeline linking China and Turkmenistan is in full operation and will supply gas to major cities in North China, including Beijing, later this week.

The gas supply will help ease the growing demand for the fuel in North China in the winter.

It is expected that 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas will be transmitted to China through the pipeline this year.

Last month, Urumqi, the capital city of West China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, started to use gas supply from the Central Asian country via the pipeline.