A Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline began operations Sunday in Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city.

The 793-kilometer pipeline is part of an oil and gas pipelines project involving investments from six corporations from four countries, including China, Myanmar, South Korea and India. A crude oil pipeline also nearing completion has an annual capacity of 22 million tons.

"The pipelines project will not only benefit the four countries but also help promote Myanmar's economic growth, industrialization and electrification, which are very meaningful to Myanmar's long-term development," said Myanmar Vice-President U Nyan Tun.

The pipeline goes all the way from Myanmar to the Chinese border town Ruili in Yunnan Province. With six processing stations, it will be able to carry 12 billion cubic meters of gas annually.

An unnamed senior Chinese official told the Global Times that Myanmar could offload some 2 million tons of oil and 20 percent of gas from the pipelines annually for its domestic use after the whole project is completed.

"The pipelines could help spread the pressure on energy transportation more widely and reduce China's dependence on the Strait of Malacca for transportation," Lin Boqiang, director of the Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.

"These pipelines could make China's energy map more complete and the energy supply for the southwestern part of China would become more reliable," Bi Shihong, a professor with the School of International Studies at Yunnan University, told the Global Times.

"The construction of the pipelines will strengthen economic cooperation between China and Myanmar," said Bi, adding that Myanmar has a serious trade deficit with China and the project would alleviate the trade imbalance.

The fate of these pipelines project was previously thought to be in danger after two large-scale Chinese projects encountered setbacks in Myanmar.

Agencies contributed to this story