China’s largest oil and gas producer, PetroChina, will buy two existing pipelines in western China from its parent firm China National Petroleum Company at yuan(CNY)9.7bn ($1.42bn), a filing at the Shanghai Stock Exchange said on Friday. The pipelines - a crude oil pipeline and a refined oil pipeline - each 1,858 km long, stretch west-to-east from Urumqi, northwestern province Xinjiang to Lanzhou, northwestern Gansu province. The crude oil pipeline and the refined oil pipeline have a nameplate capacity of 20m tonnes/year and 10m tonnes/year respectively. “It will [the purchase]...strengthen the company's capabilities in pipeline transmission, enabling the company to achieve optimal distribution and operational efficiency of the pipeline resources,” PetroChina said. “The acquisition can also reduce the connected transactions between the company and CNPC and potential competition with CNPC to a certain extent,” PetroChina added. The agreement between the two was signed on Thursday and the purchase process is due to be completed by 30 June, 2009.