Chinese Company to Build Pipeline for Russian Oil Imports
Chinese Company to Build Pipeline for Russian Oil Imports
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A private Chinese company plans to build the country's first oil pipeline to Russia, state media said Wednesday, underscoring growing Chinese interest in tapping Siberian petroleum resources. The planned 20-mile project would link railway lines between Heihe in northeast China's Heilongjiang province and the eastern Siberian city of Blagoveshchensk, across the Amur River, the officials China Daily newspaper said.
The line is to be built by Heihe-based Xinghe Industries in cooperation with the Lanta Oil Company of Moscow at a cost of 520 million yuan ($64 million), the newspaper said. It is expected to begin operations in September 2006 with an annual capacity of 21 million barrels, increasing two years later.
The new pipeline project is the latest sign of Chinese interest in tapping prospective oil and gas fields in eastern Siberia, as it attempts to quench its growing appetite for hydrocarbon fuels to power fast-paced economic growth.
The Chinese and Russian governments already have discussed the feasibility of constructing a million-barrel-per-day oil pipeline from Anagarsk in Russia to join the existing Chinese pipeline network at the northeastern city of Daqing. An alternative million-barrel-per-day pipeline would terminate in the Siberian port city of Nadhoka.
