BEIJING (Dow Jones)--China has imported 10 million metric tons of crude oil, or 73 million barrels, from Kazakhstan through a cross-border pipeline since it was commissioned in 2006, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
But the imports are still well below the pipeline's designed capacity of 20 million tons per year, or 401,600 barrels per day, mainly because China hasn't completed a refining and petrochemical complex near the end of the pipeline.
The 200,800 barrel-per-day Dushanzi refinery and one million-ton ethylene plant is still under construction, Xinhua said late Tuesday. Construction is expected to be completed at the end of this year.
China has gradually increased the pipeline's transmission volume to 480,000 tons per month this year, or 117,300 barrels per day, from 300,000 tons per month in 2006, or 73,300 barrels per day, the report said Tuesday.
PetroChina Co. (PTR), operator of the pipeline, currently sends some of the imported oil to a 200,800 barrel-per-day Lanzhou refinery through an extension of the pipeline.