China is set to annually import 30 million tons of crude oil from Russia starting next year, through two transmission pipelines between the two countries, according to Hu Weijun, chief engineer of Jiagedaqi section of the project on Tuesday.

The project is an attempt to help ensure China’s energy diversification.

“Chinese workers will finish construction on the infrastructure for the major line of China’s second Sino-Russian crude oil transmission pipeline by the end of September,” Hu said.

The project, with a length of 941.8 kilometers and built from Mohe County to Daqing, Heilongjiang province, has the capacity to transmit 15 million tons of crude oil annually.

“Workers began construction in last August, 2016, and dealt with many difficulties in the past 14 months,” Hu said.

“From October, repeated tests on the main line of this project should be conducted before it is put into service in the beginning of 2018.

“The biggest problem was the bitter cold – in this area as low as -40 C.”

The total capacity of the first and second Sino-Russian crude oil transmission pipelines will reach 30 million tons annually.

Analysts said Russia has also been a major source of crude for China, and the pipeline will be one of the latest energy cooperation between the two countries, which will help ensure China’s energy diversification.

The first 1,000-km pipeline, originating in the Russian town of Skovorodino in the Amur region, enters China at Xingan and terminates at Daqing, and was put into service on Jan 1, 2011.

It has delivered 104.92 million tons of crude oil from Russia, the Heiongjiang Entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau said on Sept 9.

Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China Energy Net Consulting, said China and Russia play complementary roles to each other as producers and exporters, as China is the world’s second-largest energy consumer, while Russia being the world’s top oil producer.