The first oil pipeline between Russia and China, feted as a mark of growing ties between the world’s biggest oil producer and its biggest energy consumer, started operation on Saturday, state media said.
Oil began flowing through the pipeline that links Siberia with refineries in the northeastern Chinese city of Daqing at 11:50am after two months of testing, Xinhua news agency reported.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had symbolically opened the pipeline — which stretches for 2,694km on the Russian side and 930km in China — on Sept. 27.
The pipeline has the capacity to carry 30 million tonnes of oil annually and will make an important contributuion to China’s attempts to diversify energy imports, state media said. Under a 2009 deal, China will receive oil for 20 years in exchange for loans worth US$25 billion.
China has already overtaken the US as the largest energy consumer. It derives 70 percent of its energy from coal combustion, but aims to diversify sources to include gas, nuclear and renewables, such as wind energy.
In October 2009, during a visit to Beijing by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Russian giant Gazprom and China National Petroleum Co signed a framework agreement providing for deliveries of 70 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to China each year.
However, the agreement has yet to come into force because of disagreements between Chinese and Russian negotiators over gas prices.
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