China taking in more oil from Kazakh pipeline

The Chinese government said oil imports through a pipeline from Kazakhstan reached a record high in 2013, marking a 14 percent increase from the previous year.

China imported more than 86 million barrels of oil last year through the China-Kazakhstan pipeline, an increase of 14.1 percent from the previous year, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

The pipeline runs 745 miles from central Kazakhstan to a PetroChina facility in northwest China. Xinhua said the increase in pipeline imports underscores the importance of securing natural resources through overland transit networks.

Xinhua reported China imported an estimated 466 million barrels of oil each year since the pipeline went into service in 2006.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its January market report Russian oil transit company Transneft aims to send approximately 140,000 barrels of oil per day to China through a Kazakh pipeline network in the first quarter of 2014.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday the expansion of the Chinese economy during recent fiscal periods was slower than before. Oil imports increased 4 percent in 2013 year-on-year compared with 7 percent growth in 2012.