More Indian Construction Companies Move into Burma
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China, Myanmar oil pipeline projects to start soon
April 22, 2007: BEIJING: China, which outsmarted India to shore up an energy deal with Myanmar, will offer USD 83 million loan to that country and invest billions of dollars to construct strategic Sino-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines.
The construction of the oil
pipeline is expected to start this year which would provide an alternative
route for the energy-hungry country's crude imports from Middle East and Africa.
Earlier this month, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top planning body, approved the
Sino-Myanmar oil pipeline project linking Myanmar's
deep-water port of Sittwe with Kunming,
capital of Yunnan Province in southwest China.
No timetable has been provided by Chinese oil giant, Sinopec for the completion
of the work. Meanwhile, China
will invest eight billion yuan (USD 1.04 billion) to build a gas pipeline,
which stretches 2,380 kilometres, linking Myanmar
with Kunming.
The pipeline will transport 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the
Middle East to southwest China
in the next 30 years. Vice mayor of southwest China's Chongqing municipality,
Huang Qifan said the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) had chosen Chongqing
as the destination for the pipeline, noting the city would build a
10-million-tonne capacity refinery to process imported crude, which is due to
come on stream in three years.
Deputy Director of the planning institute of PetroChina Company Ltd, Han Jingkuan said China may also establish an oil refinery in Kunming.
Sources: TIMES OF INDIA