The Shwe Gas pipeline—which extends 771km from western Myanmar’s Kyaukphyu on the coast of the Bay of Bengal to China’s southwestern city of Kunming— is on schedule to begin pumping this year, Gao Shuxun, the vice-governor of Yunnan province, said on Tuesday in Beijing, according to a report on the CRI website.
Gao is reported saying that construction had gone well in China and was now speeding up its “overseas sections”. He confirmed that the natural gas pipeline—which will extend beyond Kunming as far as Guizhou and Guangxi, a total pipeline length of 2,806km—will begin operating in the first half of this year, while the oil pipeline will be functional by either the end of the year or the beginning of next year.
Speaking at a press briefing at the 1st China-South Asia Expo, Gao is quoted as saying that the construction of the China-Myanmar pipelines will ease the energy shortage in China and play an important role in promoting the national economy, especially as the channels will significantly increase energy supplies to the country's underdeveloped southwestern regions.
CRI said the oil pipeline has an annual transport capacity of 22 million tonnes, while the natural gas pipeline will have an annual transport capacity of 12 billion cubic meters.
