China imports Russian crude oil using sea-rail transport

XI'AN - A chartered train commissioned to transport crude oil from Russia arrived in northwest China's Shaanxi Province Saturday, the first delivery of the commodity using marine-railway transportation.

The 2,000-tonne consignment was first shipped from the port of Kozmino in Russia to the port of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, and then transported by railway over 1,200 km to the refinery of the Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Co., Ltd. in the city of Yulin, Shaanxi.

The import also marks the opening of the new sea-rail transport route.

Yanchang Petroleum has invested 159 million yuan (about $24.9 million) to improve the crude oil unloading work at the refinery in Yulin, where imported Russian crude can be directly processed into petroleum, diesel oil, polyolefin and other products.

The company plans to increase the processing of crude oil by 500,000 tonnes a year, which would have an annual output value of 3 billion yuan in the future.