"It was completely dark outside at night when this Global Times reporter visited Kyaukpyu county, Myanmar eight years ago. Now, the city has witnessed tremendous changes thanks to the China-Myanmar crude oil and gas pipeline, a pioneer project of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, local citizens told the Global Times. The pipeline project serves as the fourth energy import channel after the China-Central Asia pipelines, China-Russia oil pipeline, and the Middle East. As a result, the project has a strategic significance for China's energy diversification and security, said Zhang Qiang, manager of the project of Sino-Pipeline International Company. He noted Myanmar also benefits a great deal from the project. An oil tanker stops at a western Myanmar port in Kyaukpyu county. Three oil delivery pipes are lowered down to unload oil into its 100,000-ton oil storage tank. That oil will go through the 771-kilometer-long China-Myanmar crude oil pipeline and head to China from Namhkam, Shan State in eastern Myanmar. In the same way, the natural gas gathered from southwestern Myanmar will go through the China-Myanmar gas pipeline. "The China-Myanmar crude oil and gas pipeline allows crude oil from the Middle East to bypass the Malacca Straits and go ashore on Made Island, which faces the Andaman Sea in the Indian Ocean. The oil will eventually arrive in China's southwestern region," Zhang told the Global Times. He noted that Myanmar requires less than 2 million tons of crude oil and 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas to promote local economic development and raise people's standard of living. Every day, about 602,700 cubic meters of natural gas are supplied from the starting station in Kyaukpyu county and transferred to the local power station..."