The 2,520 km Sino-Myanmar gas pipeline has become fully operational with completion of the final section connecting Lufeng and Guigang cities in southwestern China, authorities said here today.
Some 793 km of the trunk line are in Myanmar, while the rest is in China.
It is expected to send 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to Myanmar and southwest China, which will reduce coal consumption by 30.72 million tonnes per year, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said.
Wu Hong, general manager of the CNPC's pipeline construction department, said the China-Myanmar gas pipeline will linked with the pipeline that sends gas from China's remote northwest to the east coast, hence greatly increase the reliability of supply to customers, particularly in case of emergency, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Construction of the gas pipeline began in 2010. It is part of a so-called Myanmar-China Oil and Gas Pipeline project, which also includes building a crude oil pipeline.
The Myanmar section of the gas pipeline started to deliver gas to China in late July.
The CNPC is the parent company of China's top oil and gas producer -- PetroChina.
