CNPC unit breaks ground on Myanmar section of Sino-Myanmar Pipeline
Shanghai. August 4. INTERFAX-CHINA - China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP), a unit of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), has begun construction on the Myanmar section of the Sino-Myanmar Pipeline, CNPC announced Aug. 3.
CPP will build a 319-kilometer segment of the 793-kilometer-long Myanmar section, running from the pipeline's starting point in Kyaukphyu City to Mandalay City, according to CNPC, the pipeline's investor and operator.
CPP won the right to build the section in May this year but has not yet disclosed a construction timetable.
China and Myanmar signed an agreement to build the 2,806-kilometer Sino-Myanmar cross-border natural gas pipeline in March 2009, the announcement said. Once operational, the pipeline is expected to supply some 12 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually from Kyaukphyu to Kunming City in southern China's Yunnan Province.
The pipeline requires investment of $2.54 billion and is slated for completion by 2013, Interfax previously reported.
In December 2005, state-owned CNPC signed a deal with Myanmar's government to purchase natural gas over a 30-year period.
Myanmar has estimated natural gas reserves of 2.54 trillion cubic meters (tcm) and exports more than five bcm annually. China's other energy giants, China National Petroleum Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), also hold natural gas interests in the country.
-TT