January 1, 2022 [Reuters] – A major crude oil pipeline connecting a storage farm in east China’s Zhoushan of Zhejiang province to mega private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC) started pumping oil for the first time on Wednesday, local state media reported.

The 46.5-kilometer (28.89 miles) pipeline is designed to carry 20 million tonnes a year of crude oil and is expandable to 30 million tonnes, as reported by Zhejiang Daily.

The pipeline cost 1.6 billion yuan ($229.44 million) to build, with investment from Zhejiang Petroleum Co Ltd, a unit under state-run Zhejiang Energy Group, and two other local firms.

The pipeline has a diameter of 0.8 meter, spanning 800 meters over land and 45.7 kilometers under the sea. It starts at the Huangzeshan crude oil storage base and ends at the ZPC refinery, which is China’s single-largest refiner with daily processing capacity of 800,000 barrels.

The Huangzeshan storage base started operating in October with crude oil and refined fuel tanks, with total capacity of 1.51 million cubic meters, or about 9.5 million barrels, Zhoushan government has said.

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