Construction began on the 240-kilometer Chinese section of the Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline Wednesday in Jinghe County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), China's biggest oil producer.

The Xinjiang section will form part of a 3,000-kilometer pipeline from the oil-rich Caspian shelf to China. It will carry oil across eastern Kazakhstan from Atasu to Dushanzi in Xinjiang, where it will be refined or sent directly to China's booming east.

It is China's first major land oil import route.

A CNPC staff member said the cross-border oil pipeline, which will cost a total of US$3 billion, is scheduled to be complete on December 16, 2005. It will be able to carry 20 million tons of oil per year.

Oil analysts say the pipeline will provide China with a stable and secure supply of crude oil, while Kazakhstan will have a reliable market for its product.

Construction on the Kazakhstan section of the oil pipeline began last September and will be completed in 2005. Three Chinese factories are principally responsible for supplying the pipe, shipments of which began last winter.

Kazakhstan, the world's third largest oil producer, plans to raise its annual crude production to 100 million tons by 2010.

China's imports of Kazakh oil now travel hundreds of kilometers by rail to Xinjiang.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2005)