Trans-Myanmar pipeline ready for trials: CNPC

The Trans-Myanmar natural gas pipeline has been completed and is ready for trial operations, state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said on its website on Friday, adding that a parallel oil pipeline is 94 percent complete, but is not due to begin pumping oil from the Bay of Bengal to China for several more months
 
The 12 Bcm/year gas pipeline will transport natural gas produced in Myanmar’s offshore reserves to China's southern province of Yunnan. The 22 million mt/year oil pipeline will allow CNPC to transport some of its imported crude from Africa and the Middle East via Myanmar into China, thereby reducing its reliance on the traditional shipping route through the Straits of Malacca.

South Korea's Daewoo International said last week it expected to start commercial gas sales from the offshore Shwe project in Myanmar to CNPC in July. Daewoo will produce 500,000 Mcf/d of gas from the project, with 400,000 Mcf/d supplied to CNPC via the gas pipeline and the rest consumed in Myanmar.

A CNPC delegation led by general manager Liao Yongyuan was in Myanmar this week to meet with Myanmar's President Thein Sein in Naypyitaw. Liao said the 800km pipeline across Myanmar was a “model project” and asserted that CNPC was acting with a sense of corporate responsibility with regard to providing hospitals and schools to communities affected by the pipeline.

Thein Sein commented earlier this week that the pipeline would be a beneficial to both countries, and would provide employment opportunities to local communities.