GUANGZHOU: A 1,143-km long oil pipeline covering most of the cities around the Pearl River Delta (PRD), which became fully operational earlier this month, is likely to end the fuel crisis in the region.

The pipeline starts in Zhanjiang in western Guangdong, runs through Yangjiang, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen and ends in Huizhou, with Maoming, one of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec)'s petrol processing bases, as its pivotal point. These cities can now enjoy uninterrupted oil supply even during inclement weather.

The 3-billion yuan (US$369.91-million) pipeline can supply 12 million tons of oil a year primarily No. 0 diesel and No. 93 and 97 petrol that have a ready market in the PRD region.

Sinopec (Maoming) spokesperson Zhu Ming said recently that the pipeline would make oil supply to Guangdong less vulnerable to the whims of the weather, especially in summer when the province is hit by typhoons and rainstorms.

Also, Sinopec can now transport oil from its Maoming base to other oil-thirsty PRD cities without facing much of a problem.

The new pipeline links with another cross-PRD pipeline that runs from Guangxi to Zhanjiang and could benefit from the abundant oil resources in South and Southwest China.

Sinopec has invested a hefty 6.5 billion yuan (US$801.48 million) in the past few years to lay the two oil pipelines that together cover about 3,000 km.

Apart from the Maoming base, Sinopec can also pump in supplies from Guangzhou and Zhanjiang as well as from Hainan Province.

The pipelines will have even more supply bases once Sinopec's joint crude oil processing project with Kuwait becomes operational in Guangzhou's Nansha District and its Guangzhou and Zhanjiang plants are expanded. Also, a new unit on Hainan island is likely to join the sources.

The Sinopec-Kuwait joint project is set to have an annual crude oil refining capacity of 15 million tons. Its Guangzhou base can refine 13 million tons and the one in Zhanjiang, 5 million tons, when the expansion projects are complete.

The new project in Hainan will have an annual crude refining capacity of 8 million tons. Guangdong's oil consumption in 2005 was more than 20 million tons, or 15 per cent of the mainland's total.