Russia has shipped three million barrels of crude oil, over 100,000 barrels per day, to China via a Myanmar pipeline since February, according to Energy Intelligence, a UK-based monitoring group and leading provider of global energy information and data. Based on independent port data of shipments, it reported that Russia unloads its crude oil at the Kyaukphyu deep seaport on Made Island in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State, from where it is transported via a 770 km pipeline to a refinery owned by PetroChina in Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province. Energy Intelligence reported that the shipments to China through the Myanmar pipeline indicate that Russian oil exporters are trying out new export routes in Asia, which has been receiving the bulk of Russia’s crude oil since the European Union banned Russian crude oil in December last year. The pipeline being used by Russia to transport its crude oil to China is operated by China National Petroleum Corp, the parent company of PetroChina, with a 50.9 per cent interest in the company. The remaining shares are held by the junta-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, reports The Irrawaddy.
