Beijing:
A multi-billion dollar Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline, co-invested by six parties from four countries, including India, was inaugurated in northern Myanmar's Mandalay on Sunday and started delivering gas to energy-hungry China.
The 870-kilometre long pipeline will ship natural gas and petroleum all the way from the coastal port in Myanmar to China's Southwest Yunnan Province.
The designed annual capacity is 22 million tonnes for the oil pipeline and 12 billion cubic metres for the gas pipeline.
It shortens the distance of transportation originally going through the Malacca Strait, Chinese expert said.
The petroleum and gas would be shipped from Middle East to Myanmar and from there it would pumped to China through the pipeline.
The pipeline started to deliver gas to China, official media here reported.
Experts estimate that the pipelines will satisfy a quarter of China's natural gas demand every year, and also bring about USD 1.5 billion to Myanmar each year, creating a win-win co-operation between the two countries, the CCTV report said.
The gas pipeline, co-invested by six parties from four countries including India and South Korea, has a designed annual throughput of 12 billion cubic meters before off-loading in Myanmar.
After the completion and commissioning of the whole project, two million tonnes of crude oil and 20 per cent of the designed throughput of gas will be off-loaded in Myanmar, which will be helpful to promote Myanmar's economic development and people's living standards.
Two joint ventures -- South-East Asia Crude Oil Pipeline Co., Ltd. (SEAOP) and South-East Asia Gas Pipeline Co., Ltd. (SEAGP) -- were registered and established with investment from all parties to respectively take charge of operation of the two pipelines.
The SEAOP involves China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), while the SEAOP involves CNPC of China, DAEWOO of South Korea, OCEBV and and GAIL from India, MOGE of Myanmar, KOGAS of South Korea, state run Xinhua news agency reported.
