A newly built refinery in China near its border with Myanmar is facing a delay in its start-up.
It comes after state firm Petrochina balked at paying an extra tax for piping crude oil through the Southeast Asian nation.
PetroChina parent CNPC said earlier last year it had begun trial operations of a deep sea port and 2,400km pipeline through Myanmar.
The pipeline is aimed at easing China’s reliance on the Malacca Strait, through which about 80% of its oil imports now pass.
PetroChina has also been building a 260,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery at Anning in Yunnan province to process the oil, which so far can only be stored in tanks.
The company completed construction of the Anning plant around July, and had aimed for test operations this month, but the project was now facing delays, said one of sources with knowledge of the matter.