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Oil ships start
Two ships each carrying 150 tonnes of refined oil have arrived in southwest China's Yunnan province from Thailand via the Mekong River, marking the trial launch of China's oil-shipping programme with its Southeast Asian partners.
Experts say the waterway will serve as an alternative to the Strait of Malacca as a route for oil shipping and help to ensure oil supplies to Yunnan and southwest China at large. The Mekong River rises on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and flows through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the South China Sea. It is called the Lancang River in China. In March last year, China signed a landmark agreement with Laos, Burma and Thailand on refined oil shipping on the waterway. But the agreement allowed a monthly shipping quota of only 1,200 tonnes of oil out of safety concerns. - The Nation.
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