China is considering laying an oil pipeline connecting Kunming City, the capital of southwestern China’s Yunnan Province, with Sittwe Harbor, a major harbor in western Myanmar, to reduce its dependence on the Malacca Straits, through which over 60% of China’s total oil imports are transported. Liaowang (Outlook), a domestic political magazine, quotes an expert with the Yunnan Provincial Academy of Social Science, Li Chenyang, as saying that the government of Yunnan Province has filed a proposal with the State Council, China’s cabinet, to build the oil pipeline. Sittwe Harbor, situated on the east bank of the Bay of Bengal, could accommodate VLCCs with holding capacity reaching 200,000 tons. The pipeline route from Sittwe Harbor, where oil shipments originating in the Middle East could be unloaded and cross the Sino-Myanmar border into Kunming City, runs 1,200 km shorter than the current seaway from the Arabia Sea through the Malacca Straits to Zhanjiang City, in southern Guangdong Province. Experts say this proposed inland route through Myanmar is much safer than the current route through the pirate infested waters of the Malacca Straits. Full Story
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