DIVERSIFIED OIL IMPORTS FOR CHINA

    China would be able to secure another source of imported oil, when the pipeline was put into use at the end of next year, said NDRC's Jiang.

    "It is good for the country's energy security, and a strong support for China's efforts to diversify its oil import sources," he said.

    China has been aiming to reduce its reliance on the Middle East for oil supplies to avoid risks from regional conflicts and pirates.

    Statistics showed that China imported 179 million tonnes of crude last year, and the imports accounted for 48 percent of the country's total crude demand.

    About 50 percent of China's imported crude was from Middle East countries, such as Saudi Arabia, and nearly 30 percent was from African countries.

    Supplies from both regions have to go via the Strait of Malacca, which is vulnerable to security threats, and ocean shipment is always confined by weather conditions, said Jiang.

    After the completion of the pipeline, Russia would be able to supply 26 million tonnes of crude to China annually, plus 11 million tonnes via rail, according to Xia.

    The China-Russia pipeline is also an important part of China's goals to build four channels for oil imports -- three onshore, the China-Russia pipeline in the northeast, the natural gas pipeline to Central Asia in the northwest, and an oil pipeline via Myanmar in the southwest, plus one offshore.

    The Central Asia-China natural gas pipeline project is currently under construction since the project was started last year, and the 1,818-km line runs from Gedaim on the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to Khorgos in China's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

    The China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), China's largest oil and gas producer, has agreed to import 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually through the planned pipeline for 30 years from Turkmenistan.

    China is actively working on the southwestern pipeline with Myanmar. The two nations agreed in March to build a crude oil and natural gas pipeline, which is designed to link a port city in Myanmar with Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, the neighboring province to Myanmar, during the visit of Li Changchun, a senior official of the Communist Party of China, to Myanmar.

    China is also expecting to receive offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports as domestic producers rushed to build LNG terminals along the coast, and such imports would add to traditional ocean shipments of crude.

    Xia said the China-Russia pipeline conforms with China's strategy of multiple sources for oil imports, and at the same time served Russia's goal to diversify its oil exports.

    (Xinhua reporter Lou Chen in Moscow and An Bei in Beijing also contributed to the story.)

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