Saturday, January 26, 2013

Trans-Burma Oil & Gas Pipeline is Completed!

(Direct translation of News Article from The Myanmah Ahlin on 25 January 2013.)

Massive Burma-China pipeline carrying crude oil from the middle-east and natural gas from Burma will be completed in May and the oil and gas will start flowing in early June this year, according to Gao Jianguo the head of the Trans-Burma Pipeline Project under China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

Burma side of the pipeline has already been completed and the China side will be completed at the end of this month. The actual flow tests are planned at the end of February and by the end of May this year the pipeline will be ready for the distribution of crude oil and natural gas. The pipeline is the joint project between MPGE (Myanmar Petroleum and Gas Enterprise) and CNPC.

The pipeline carrying crude oil from the middle-east connects the Burmese port town of Kyaukphyu in the Arrakan and the Chinese city of Kuming in the Yunan of China. The total length of the pipeline is 771 km and the flow capacity is 22 million metric-tons of crude oil a year.

Other pipeline carrying natural gas from Burma connects Kyaukphyu port and the Chinese cities of Kuming, Kaikyo, and Kyaungsi. Total length of the natural gas pipeline is 2806 km and the flow capacity is 12 billion cubic-meters.
Myanmah Ahlin's article announcing the pipeline completion (25-01-2013).


BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- If everything goes as planned, the China-Myanmar oil and natural gas pipelines, China's new strategic energy channels, are expected to be completed on May 30, according to the contractor.

Construction has been sped up on the pipelines' domestic and overseas sections. Barring insurmountable barriers, the oil and gas pipelines could begin operating in early June, Gao Jianguo, the head of the project under the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), told Xinhua on Saturday.

The main parts in Myanmar have been finished, while those in Chinese territory will be completed this month. The pipelines will undergo pressure tests and a drying process in February, according to Gao.

Crude oil will be shipped from the Middle East via the Indian Ocean -- instead of the risk-prone Strait of Malacca -- before reaching Myanmar and entering China via the oil pipeline.

The 1,100-kilometer-long oil and natural gas pipelines run from the port of Kyaukpyu on Myanmar's west coast and enter China at Ruili, Yunnan Province.

The oil pipeline has a designed annual transport capacity of 22 million tonnes, while the natural gas pipeline has a designed annual transport capacity of 12 billion cubic meters. The channels will significantly increase the energy supply to the country's underdeveloped southwestern regions.


Super-carrier USS George Washington in Singapore Waters (2010).
China's very first aircraft-carrier Liaoning  in South-China sea (2012). 

China's Strategic Plan to remove Excessive Reliance on Seaborne Oil Imports

The China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline was formally started on June 3, 2010 after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Myanmar President U Thein Sein jointly presided over an opening ceremony in Nay Pyi Daw.  With a total investment of 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion), the pipeline could deliver 23 million tons of oil and 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas every year to China. 

China now imports 4.6 mbpd of crude oil the 40% of its massive crude oil consumption (almost 9 million-barrels-per-day) and almost all of that imported oil comes by sea route through nearly-choking Malacca Straits which is effectively controlled by US Navy’s Super-Carrier Strike Groups.
To protect China’s oil imports Chinese leadership drew a strategic plan in early 2000s to remove that excessive reliance on the seaborne oil shipments. And the Trans-Burma and Trans-Pakistan pipelines, and the pipelines from Russia and Kazakhstan are the direct results of that strategic plan.


Grandson, Follow this great pipeline,
Walk past the fields claimed by the industrial zone,
Once past the big mine hole formerly a mountain,
You will find  a small grocery shop,
Buy a pack of candles there,
for you need it to do your homework at night!