The domestic "artery" is already being rapidly formed: since the late 1990s, gas routes, including those between Shaanxi and Beijing and western China's Xinjiang and eastern China, have been built and put into operation. China is now planning to build several natural gas pipelines from Russia and Kazakhstan to form a main grid of pipelines. China's domestic natural gas pipeline network is currently 24,000km long but, by the end of 2010, it will have been extended to 36,000km. It is predicted that China will need an extra 50-90bn cum/yr of gas by 2020. "To meet the demand, China needs to import LNG while building pipelines," Tang Yali, vice-manager of China's Oil and Natural Gas Pipeline Corporation said at the meeting. Mr Tang also said it is imperative for China to build an offshore import route to receive LNG from Australia and other regions. So far 11 coastal provinces and municipalities plan to build infrastructure to import LNG, which requires approval from the central government. Natural gas from Russia and central Asia will be imported through west China's Xinjiang Uygor Autonomous Region. China and Russia have already signed a memorandum of understanding on Russia's supply of natural gas to China in March, and it is expected that from 2011, China will import 60-80bn cum/yr from Russia. The route will most likely be from western Siberia via Altay to Xinjiang and a pipeline to China will be built from the eastern part of Russia. In addition to importing gas from Russia, China will build pipelines from central Asian countries including Turkmenistan, which is already contracted to supply 30bn cum/yr to China, starting in 2009. However, Turkmenistan does not share a border with China so the pipeline will have to go through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. These two countries also intend to export natural gas to China and, once the pipeline is built, the three countries can export natural gas to China simultaneously.