The Shenhua Group recently signed insurance agreements valued 7.5 billion yuan with four leading property insurance companies of China--PICC, PING AN, Pacific and Tianan-- for its "liquefied coal" project, the first of its kind in the world and a strategic program of China for developing a substitute of petroleum. This is reportedly one of the largest engineering insurance projects in China this year.

According to the agreements, the four companies will insure the project, according to different proportions, against risks in the processes of project design, material supply, delivery, construction, installation, test, experiment and production line put into commercial operation, supportive projects, as well as third-party life and property damage caused by accidents directly related to the project on construction sites and neighboring areas.

Launched on August 25 in Erdos, Inner Mongolia, the "liquefied coal" project by Shenhua is a key program in China's west development strategy. When completed, it will be the world first set of equipment capable of direct coal liquefying put into commercial operation. The total production capability will be at 5 million tones of oil products annually, which will be built by two stages. The total investment for the first stage is 24.5 billion yuan, during which 9.7 million tones of coal will be used annually to produce 3.2 million tons of oil products of various kinds. The first production line of it will be completed by July 2007.

By People's Daily Online