Burma: hooking up with China
- CNPC signing up for Burmese gas
- Burma set to strike gold
- Essar shortlists for drilling
- Daewoo to tap Burma gas for China
- Beijing and Seoul strike Burma deal
- MPRL dives in off Burma
- Golden Aaron targeted in latest anti-Burma sanctions
- PTTEP and CNOOC swap Burma stakes
- PTTEP agrees Burma swap with CNOOC
China set to start Burma pipeline
China will start building oil and gas pipelines through Burma in September that would enable it shorten the journey time for crude imports from the Middle East and Africa.
"The section of the pipelines in Myanmar (Burma) will be built under the name of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) but whether CNPC or PetroChina undertakes the construction of the domestic section has not been decided," the China Securities Journal reported, citing an unnamed CNPC official.
CNPC, China's largest oil and gas producer, operates most of its domestic businesses via listed PetroChina.
The oil and gas pipelines would help China cut out crude cargoes' long detour through the congested Malacca Strait as well as strengthen its access to rich energy reserves in Burma itself.
The gas line, with transportation capacity of 12 billion cubic metres per year, is expected to carry natural gas to Kunming, the capital of south-western China's Yunnan province, which borders Burma, in 2012, the report said.
The pipe, with total length of 2806 kilometres, will extend to Guizhou province and end in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi region.
The 400,000 barrels per day crude oil pipe would run about 1100 kilometres from a deep-sea port in Kyaukphyu Township in Burma's Rakhine State to China's Kunming before extending to Guizhou and Chongqing municipality, reported Reuters.