China’s largest oil company has joined the ranks of state-owned companies offering up prized assets in order to raise funds for future expansion, announcing plans to spin off a portion of its transnational gas pipelines business.

PetroChina, the listed arm of China National Petroleum Corp, said it would establish a separate company comprising two of its west-east pipelines, which carry natural gas more than 4,000km from the central Asian border region of Xinjiang to Shanghai and Guangdong, on the prosperous eastern coast. It valued the assets at Rmb29bn-Rmb39bn ($4.7bn-$6.3bn).

The move is part of a strategy to invite “outside capital” – referring to private or foreign investors as well as pension funds or other government investment – into state-dominated sectors including energy, which have borrowed