The Myanmar-China oil pipeline has been officially inaugurated in a ceremony involving government and business representative from China and Myanmar.

Trial operations were launched at a ceremony yesterday in Yangon attended by U Nyan Tun, Myanmar vice president, Yang Houlan, the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar, U Zay Ya Aung, Myanmar energy minister, and Liao Yongyuan, general manager of CNPC.

China, the world’s largest oil importer, hopes to use the new pipeline to diversify its sources of crude and to short-cut transmission routes from the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Construction of the pipeline began in June 2010 and was completed in May last year.

CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) holds the majority interest in the project with  50.9 per cent, and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) holding the remaining 49.1 per cent.

The pipeline measures 771 kilometres and has a projected transmission capacity of 22 million tons of oil per year.

A deepwater terminal in the Myanmarese port of Madae Island has received the first large oil tanker of 300,000 tons and will be opened in a separate ceremony tomorrow

The combined China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline project comprises a crude oil pipeline and a gas pipeline. The gas pipeline was opened in 2013 and has, as of 25 January 2015, transported 3.92 billion cubic metres of gas from Myanmar to China.