China will start building oil and gas pipelines cross Myanmar in September in an attempt to reduce its dependence on energy supplies transported through the Strait of Malacca, the China Business News reported on Tuesday.

China and Myanmar have agreed to build a US$2.5 billion oil-and-gas pipeline project connecting a port on the Bay of Bengal and the southern Chinese city of Kunming in March this year.

Earlier media reports said the project also included a US$1.5 billion oil pipeline and US$1.04 billion gas line. The project is expected to provide an alternative route for China's crude imports from the Middle East and Africa, easing the country's worries of its over-dependence on energy transportation through the Strait of Malacca.

The gas line, with transportation capacity of 12 billion cubic meters a year, is projected to ship in natural gas to Kunming, capital of southwestern China's Yunnan Province by 2012.

According to the Yunnan provincial government, construction of the Yunnan-Myanmar gas pipeline is one of a series of large energy and infrastructure projects Yunnan will embark on in 2009.

The pipe, with total length of 2,806 kilometers, will transport 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Kyaukphyu Township, in Myanmar's Rakhine State, to China's Kunming City before extending to Guizhou Province.

Chinese story link: http://www.china-cbn.com/s/n/000004/20090616/020000103027.shtml

(China.org.cn by Wu Nanlan June 16, 2009)