SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s Yantai Port Group started on Monday pumping oil into a newly expanded crude oil pipeline that connects the port of Yantai to a group of independent refineries in the country’s refining hub Shandong, state media reported on Tuesday.
The 370-kilometre (229.91 mile) pipeline, with an annual transport capacity of 20 million tonnes (400,000 barrels per day), is solely invested by Yantai Port Group, a unit of provincial government-backed Shandong Port Group.
The new line, linking Yantai with city of Weifang, adds to an existing parallel 650-km pipeline connecting Yantai with Zibo, bringing total transport capacity to 40 million tonnes annually, or 800,000 bpd.
About ten independent refineries are linked to the two pipelines, according to Shandong-based commodities consultancy JLC.
As part of commodities logistics operations, Yantai Port also operates a 300,000-tonnage crude oil terminal and a 3.6 million cubic-metre (23 million barrels) crude oil tank farm.
Yantai is also China’s largest port for fertiliser and bauxite, according to the group’s website.
(Reporting by Chen Aizhu, Editing by Louise Heavens)
