China has completed the 1,000-km oil pipeline to oil-rich Kazakhstan, boosting the communist giant's energy security.
Technicians of Chinese oil giant, Sinopec, finished their last welding work in Alataw Pass on Monday joining the ends of the oil pipeline linking China and Kazakhstan after 18 months of work.
The first trans-national oil project is jointly built by China National Petroleum Corporation and its Kazakh counterpart.
In the first phase of the project, $700 million were invested to build a pipeline with the capacity of 20 million tonnes per annum. The construction of the trans-national oil pipeline signifies that the energy cooperation between China and Kazakhstan has stepped into a new phase, deputy general-manager of China Petroleum Exploration and Development Company, Yin Juntai said.
He said currently the CNPC has 53 projects in 21 countries, including three exploration projects, four oilfields and two pipeline projects in Kazakhstan.
Apart from that, in August, the CNPC successfully purchased PetroKazakhstan, beating a rival bid by ONGC-Mittal group. The oil pipeline project will also greatly promote the economic growth of northwest China's Xinjiang, Ma Ao, an official with the autonomous region's Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture of Bortala.
The Altaw Pass, where the oil pipeline joins, will become a hub of railway, road and pipeline transportation in the near future, the official said.
