BEIJING, March. 10 -- China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) will complete two major oil pipelines costing almost US$2 billion in northwestern China this year, part of the oil giant¡¯s plan to boost energy security, a company official said.

    A 1,858-kilometer-oil-product line from Urumqi in the remote Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region to Lanzhou City in Gansu Province will be ready for operation by the end of May, with a designed capacity of 200,000 barrels per day (bpd).

    A 1,500-kilometer pipeline, with a capacity to channel 400,000 bpd of crude oil, will be built along the same route and will be completed by the end of October, said the Beijing-based official Wednesday.

    The two pipelines, costing 13 to 15 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion to US$1.85 billion), will eventually be connected to the landmark China-Kazakhstan crude pipeline, the only onshore pipeline that the world's second-largest oil consumer has secured.

    The new pipelines will help the firm to more efficiently supply fuels from the landlocked, oil-surplus northwestern region to the country's booming coastal and central regions.

    The country is pulling together a comprehensive energy security plan that includes building cross-country oil and gas pipelines, setting up strategic petroleum reserves and buying foreign oil and gas assets, to hedge against soaring dependence on imports.

    PetroChina, the listed unit of CNPC and operator of refineries and oilfields in the northwestern region, has been relying on the often congested railway system to transport its oil.

    The Beijing-based official said it might take a few years for the two pipelines to reach full designed capacity.

    ¡°We don't have enough surplus crude to fully utilize the line,¡± said the official, without elaborating.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)