BEIJING - China Oil & Gas Pipeline Network Corp (PipeChina) launched a 115-km-long (71.5 miles) gas transmission pipeline, connecting its Yuedong liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to three cities in Southern Chinese province Guangdong.

The pipeline, which is designed to transmit nearly 5.3 billion cubic metres (bcm) gas each year, will connect to the existing Guangdong provincial pipeline networks and West-East gas line 2 and line 3, PipeChina said on Tuesday.

Launched in May 2017, Yuedong has been relying on trucks and boil-off-gas (BOG) for gas transmission and storage, and the pipeline aims to help boost Yuedong's annual LNG-receiving capacity to 4.2 million tonnes.

Yuedong terminal was transferred to PipeChina from China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) last year as part of China's pipeline reform.

(Reporting by Muyu Xu and Chen Aizhu, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) ((muyu.xu@thomsonreuters.com; +86 10 56692117;))