Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19 -- PetroChina said it has obtained approval from the Chinese government to lay two pipelines to carry oil products from the northeastern and northwestern areas of China to the country's central regions.
PetroChina said it will invest about $1.5 billion to construct the two lines, which are expected to become operational as early as 2007.
One pipeline will extend from Lanzhou, in northwest China's Gansu Province, and carry 8 million tonnes/year of products. The other pipeline will begin at Jinzhou, in northeast China's Liaoning Province, and carry as much as 4 million tonnes/year of oil.
The two lines will meet in Zhengzhou, in the central province of Henan. A planned extension will reach Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, south of Henan.
The pipelines will transport oil from refineries handling crude oil received by pipelines from Kazakhstan and Russia.
In December 2005, line-fill began on the 614-mile, 32-in. crude oil pipeline between Atasu in northwestern Kazakhstan and Alashankou in China's northwestern Xinjiang region (OGJ Online, Dec. 15, 2005).
The Chinese-Kazakh pipeline will initially carry 10 million tonnes/year of crude, with much of it expected to come from the Kumkol fields in south Kazakhstan and Chinese-owned oil fields in the Aktobe region of western Kazakhstan.
China and Russia are discussing another pipeline project that would transport about 30 million tonnes/year of oil. The would extend 1,500 miles from Angarsk, Russia, to Daqing in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
