In the pipeline: CNPC is pushing ahead with pipe plans
Beijing digs in with Kazakh pipes
China will start full-scale construction of the China-Kazakhstan natural gas pipeline and the second phase of an existing crude pipeline this year, Zhou Jiping, vice president of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said today.
Beijing sees its central Asian neighbour as a strategic partner to secure oil and gas supplies for its fast-expanding economy, while Kazakhstan views the world's second-largest energy user as an indispensible market to diversify away from its Western consumers.
Chinese media reported that construction of the 761-kilometre Kumkol-Kenkiyak crude pipeline extension was slated for completion by October 2009, Reuters reported.
Crude output at fields in Kazakhstan operated by CNPC was 18.62 million tonnes (139.3 million barrels) last year and natural gas output was 4 billion cubic metres, Zhou said at the China-Kazakhstan forum in Beijing.
He did not give CNPC's share in the output.
Zhou said his company has invested a total of $6.5 billion in the Central Asian nation in the past decade.
CNPC, the parent of PetroChina, and Kazakh state energy company KazMunaiGas have agreed to set up a 50-50 owned unit to build and maintain the gas pipeline that would annually pump 40 Bcm of gas from as far as the Caspian Sea to China.
China's crude imports from Kazakhstan last year more than doubled 2006 levels at 6 million tonnes, roughly 4% of China's total imports, official customs data showed, mostly via a 200,000 barrels per day crude line that started in July 2006.