On Wednesday, Thailand’s Minister of Energy Sitthi Chiraphongphan and the first secretary for economy and trade at the Chinese embassy in Thailand witnessed a ceremony to sign a contract for the fuel pipeline expansion project in the Northeast. The contract was signed by Pipeline Network Company–the project’s operator–and China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering–the contractor.
The project will install a 16”petro pipeline and connect it with an existing pipeline of the Thai Petroleum Pipeline Co., Ltd. in Sao Hai district in Sara Buri. The new 342-kilometer pipeline will pass 18 districts in five provinces and end in Ban Phai district in Khon Kaen. Apart from the pipeline, the project will construct a 14 billion liter oil depot worth nine billion baht in the second quarter of this year. The construction is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2021.
The project is expected to reduce petrol oil transport by truck by 88,000 journeys a year and save fuel for transport by more than 15.4 million liters a year.
The Chinese government has provided loans for the project and studies on the expansion of petrol pipelines to Vientiane in Laos
