China-Russia oil pipeline records 30m tons in delivery

HARBIN -- A China-Russia oil pipeline has transported 30 million tons of crude oil two years since it began operating, the Chinese operator of the pipeline said Tuesday.

The pipeline, which delivers oil from Russia's far-eastern region to fuel-hungry China through its northeastern provinces, has been regarded as a milestone project in the two countries' energy cooperation.

Operation of the pipeline has been praised for reducing cost and raising efficiency of China's oil import from Russia, which had previously relied on railway, said Wu Zhenning, an official with the Pipeline Branch of Petro China Co Ltd, the operator of the Chinese section of the pipeline.

The 1,000-km-long line originates in the Russian town of Skovorodino in the Amur region, enters China at Mohe and terminates at the Daqing city in Heilongjiang province. It was put to use on January 1, 2011.

According to an agreement signed between the two countries, the pipeline will transport 15 million tons of crude oil from Russia to China annually between 2011 to 2030.

China consumed 450 million tons of crude oil in 2011, of which 250 million tons were imported, and both the oil consumption and the proportion of import will continue to rise, according to China National Petroleum Corporation, China's largest oil producer and supplier.

China is planning the construction of a natural gas pipeline linking Russia, and it has hoped to increase the annual oil transport volume on the pipeline to 30 million tons, Zhao Yujian, head of China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau, said previously.