China plans to build another 25,000 kilometers of oil and gas pipelines by 2010 to support economic development, said the China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPPLB).

The length of the country's oil and gas pipelines totals 40,000 kilometers at present, said Su Shifeng, director of the CPPLB, which is a leading enterprise in the country's oil and gas pipeline transportation industry.

The CPPLB recorded 420 million yuan (US$52.5 million) of profits last year, 82.6 percent up from 2005, according to the company.

It raked in 8.4 billion yuan of revenues and turned in 395 million yuan of taxes last year.

The CPPLB undertakes the construction of more than 80 percent of China's oil and gas pipelines and over 75 percent of the country's crude oil storage tanks.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2007)