Myanmar's natural gas has started flowing into China's southwestern Guangxi province via pipeline as of Sunday, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. said Monday.
This is an extension of the existing distribution network where the pipeline enters China in Ruili, in neighboring Yunnan province, west of Guangxi.
CNPC began commercial operations at the Guigang spur of the Guangxi pipeline network Sunday morning, the company said, adding that the spur starts in Lufeng county in Yunnan.
The startup of the Guigang section was delayed from an earlier target of September. CNPC opened the valves of the gas compressor station in Ruili at the beginning of August and said at the time that first gas would reach Yunnan province within the month. Full-commissioning of imports is likely to have only materialized in September as data from the General Administration of Customs did not show any gas imports from Myanmar in August.
Gas from Myanmar comes from the deepwater 500,000 Mcf/d Shwe gas field in the Bay of Bengal off Myanmar's western coast. Production started in mid-July, with initial volumes for the domestic market.
CNPC has a long-term contract to take 80% of the project's output via the 739 km Myanmar-China gas pipeline, which is linked to CNPC's 1,727 km network in southwestern China.
