China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's biggest oil and gas producer, has started laying the second oil pipeline of the China-Russia crude oil pipeline project in Northeast China's -Heilongjiang Province.
The pipeline, which runs from Mohe to Daqing, both in Heilongjiang, will be 940 kilometers long and is expected to have an annual capacity of 15 million tons, according to a report published by the People's Daily on Wednesday.
The project is likely to be completed by the end of October 2017, and is expected to start operations on January 1, 2018.
The energy relationship between China and Russia, one of the world's biggest oil producers, has deepened since Russia started sending oil supplies to China in 2011, Bloomberg reported in May.
China's imports of Russian crude jumped nearly 30 percent in 2015, making Russia the second-largest supplier to China on an annual basis after Saudi Arabia, noted the report.
China signed an agreement with the Russian government to expand crude oil trade cooperation in March 2013.
In June 2013, CNPC signed a contract with Rosneft to increase Russian crude supplies to China. Under the contract, starting from January 2018, Rosneft is to increase supplies of crude to China via the pipeline being constructed now.
The second pipeline project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, in March 2014.
