Baku, Azerbaijan, May 17
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Myanmar has started pumping 140,000 tons of Azeri Light oil via a new pipeline to China, where the cargo will be refined at PetroChina, the country’s second largest state refinery, in Kunming city of Yunnan Province, a source in the oil and gas market of Azerbaijan told Trend May 17.
The source said that the Azerbaijani oil will reach Ruili city on the border of Myanmar and China before the beginning of next week.
“If the pumping remains at a stable level, the whole cargo of Azeri Light will reach the PetroChina refinery by the end of June 2017,” said the source. “China National United Oil Corporation ‘Chinaoil’, which bought Azerbaijani oil for the refinery, hasn’t agreed upon the final tariffs for pumping through the pipeline yet, however, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has instructed to start the oil pumping.”
China and Myanmar in April 2017 signed an agreement on the transportation of oil to the PetroChina refinery.
Pumping of the first cargo of Azerbaijani oil will initiate the first phase of the refinery’s commissioning, and this phase will last for at least two months.
The Azeri Light oil is produced at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.