China achieved a significant milestone as it finalized the construction of its longest deepwater pipeline designed to boost the country’s oil and gas transportation capacity.

According to a news report by a Chinese broadcaster CGTN, the pipeline forms an integral part of the second phase of China's Shenhai-1, also known as Deep Sea-1, an ultra-deepwater energy station, which began its operations in June 2021.

The newly completed pipeline is approximately 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Sanya City in the southern province of Hainan. As reported by CGTN, its primary objective is to bolster the peak annual output of the Shenhai-1 gas field from 3 billion cubic meters to an impressive 4.5 billion cubic meters.

The development model for this project was spearheaded by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), incorporating a subsea production system, a shallow water jacket processing platform, and a remote-control system for a deepwater semi-submersible platform.

CNOOC skillfully employed a combination of deepwater large-diameter seamless steel pipes and deepwater bimetallic composite pipes to meet the stringent requirements of China's first deepwater high-pressure gas field, displaying China's prowess in deepwater energy infrastructure development.

Notably, China has already laid more than 9,000 kilometers (5,592 miles) of offshore oil and gas pipelines, solidifying its leadership in this sector. Last year, the China-Central Asia pipeline successfully delivered a staggering 43.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China. This achievement underscores China's growing reliance on its Central Asian neighbors, which include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, for a consistent supply of energy, agricultural products, and minerals.

In fact, China's imports of these goods from the aforementioned Central Asian countries witnessed a surge of over 50% in the past year alone, and about 42 percent increase in Chinese exports of mechanical and electronic products to these nations China's completion of the longest deepwater pipeline marks a significant step in its commitment to expanding its energy infrastructure and strengthening its ties with Central Asian nations.