by Xinhua writers Wu Qiong and Lin Jianyang

    BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- China, the world's second largest oil consumer, is getting closer to steady supplies from Russia, the world's second largest producer, as construction on the China section of an oil pipeline linking the two nations starts Monday.

    Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan declared the commencement of the China section in Xing'an Town in the border county of Mohe, northeastern Heilongjiang Province, on Monday morning.

    Wang called the pipeline a "substantial" step forward towards long-term energy cooperation between Russia and China.

    The 1,030-km line runs from Russia's Siberian city of Skovorodino to the Chinese terminal in the northeastern city of Daqing, via Mohe. The construction of a nearly-63-km section in Russia, from Skovorodino to Mohe, started on April 27.

    The line is actually a branch of Russia's Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean trunk oil pipeline, which runs from Taishet to the Far East port of Nakhodka.

    The branch line into China is expected to become operational by the end of next year and would transport 15 million tonnes of crude annually from Russia to China between 2011 and 2030.

    Xia Yishan, head of the China energy strategy research center under the China Institute of International Studies, said the final agreement on the pipeline was mutually beneficial to both countries, despite 14 years of negotiations.

    Talks on the pipeline were initiated shortly after Boris Yeltsin, then President of Russia, visited China and signed agreements on energy cooperation between the two nations in 1996.

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