China completes its longest submarine oil and gas pipeline

China on Thursday completed its longest deepwater pipeline for transporting oil and gas.

The pipeline is a crucial component of the second phase of China's ultra-deepwater energy station known as Shenhai-1, or Deep Sea-1, which commenced operations in June 2021, Chinese broadcaster CGTN reported.

Located approximately 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Sanya City in the southern province of Hainan, the phase II project aims to increase the peak annual output of the Shenhai-1 gas field from 3 billion cubic meters to 4.5 billion cubic meters, said CGTN.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has pioneered a new development model which includes a subsea production system, a shallow water jacket processing platform and a remote-control system for a deepwater semi-submersible platform.

CNOOC has employed a combination of deepwater large-diameter seamless steel pipes and deepwater bimetallic composite pipes to meet the demanding requirements of China's first deepwater high-pressure gas field.

China has already laid over 9,000 kilometers (5,592 miles) of offshore oil and gas pipelines, demonstrating its leadership in deepwater energy infrastructure development.

The China-Central Asia pipeline delivered 43.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China last year.

China's imports of energy, agricultural and mineral products from the five Central Asian countries -- namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- increased by more than 50% last year, while its exports of mechanical and electronic products to these countries rose by around 42%.