China National Petroleum Corp. and KazMunayGas have signed an agreement on principles of an expansion of the pipeline that carries crude oil from Atasu in western Kazakhstan to a PetroChina Co. Ltd. refinery at Dushanzi, China.

No capacity plans were reported. Current capacity of the 1,200-km pipeline, which started up in 2006, is 10 million tonnes/year (OGJ Online, July 31, 2006).

Signing of the preliminary agreement came during a state visit to China by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Oil & Gas Journal reports capacity of the Dushanzi refinery as 200,000 b/cd.