A private Chinese company plans to build the country's first oil pipeline to Russia.
Chinese state media say the planned 30-kilometer project announced Wednesday will link railway lines between Heihe in China's northeast Heilongjiang province and the eastern Russian city of Blagoveshchensk.
The two cities are the closest along the borders of the two countries, separated by the Heilongjiang River in China - known as the Amur River in Russia.
The $64 million project is expected to be operational in September 2006, and will carry 21 million barrels of oil per year.
It is the latest project to help Beijing as it looks for alternatives to Middle East oil.
Some information for this report provided by AP.
