China-Myanmar crude pipeline opens: Chinese state media

BEIJING, Jan 29 (AFP): A pipeline pumping oil from Myanmar to China started a trial operation yesterday, Chinese state media reported, Beijing's latest step to diversify energy imports into the world's second-largest economy.

The 771 kilometre (478 mile) pipeline will connect the world's top crude buyer with a deep-water port in western Myanmar, reducing China's dependence on oil transported through the Straits of Malacca.

Myanmar Vice President U Nyan Tun and Liao Yongyuan, general manager of Chinese energy giant CNPC, attended the opening ceremony, China's Xinhua news agency reported from Yangon.

CNPC and Myanmar's state-run Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE), completed the pipeline in late May last year after launching the project in June 2010, Xinhua said.