(Yicai Global) March 28 -- China's state-owned energy giant China National Petroleum Corporation, CNPC, started a new phase of a liquefied natural gas, or LNG, project in the northern Hebei province to increase its energy supplies, which experienced interruptions in the cold winter months.

The third phase of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Tangshan kicked off, it said, adding that it will help enhance gas supply capacity in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region during the winter peak once it is completed at the end of 2020.

The project was jointly funded by CNPC and state-owned natural gas supplier Beijing Gas Group Co., with total investment of CNY2.7 billion (USD430 million). The project includes four new LNG storage tanks and gasifiers, compressors and other supporting facilities with 160,000 cubic meters of reserves.

When the project is completed and put into production, Tangshan LNG terminal can supply 31.6 million cubic meters of natural gas every day during the peak period of the winter, the company said. It will also provide a strong guarantee for the implementation of a clean energy project to replace coal with gas in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

The Tangshan terminal received and unloaded a total of 32 ships with a total of 2.73 million tons of LNG last winter. It also transported 3.91 billion cubic meters of natural gas after gasification, setting new production records, a CNPC official said.

Beijing has been vigorously promotion a campaign to replace coal with gas in order to reduce air pollution caused by coal-fired heating in the winter. As of last year, 185,000 rural households had completed the conversion project, said Xue Jianning, deputy general manager of Beijing Gas Group Co. However, the project has also increased the demand for natural gas in North China, and as a result, a large-scale gas shortage occurred last winter.