Nation's largest crude oil wharf completed

Construction on a wharf able to accommodate 300,000-dwt crude oil tankers was completed Thursday at Nianyu Bay, in the coastal city of Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The wharf is believed to be the largest of its kind in the country.

At cost of 530 million yuan (63.8 million US dollars), construction on the wharf started in September 2002, with a designed annual handling capacity of 23 million tons.

The wharf is expected to deal with 10 million tons of crude oilat the initial stage, and the figure is estimated to rise to 15 million tons in the future.

The wharf, together with local existing crude and oil product docks, will make Nianyu Bay the country's largest transit hub for crude and oil products.

The wharf will serve oil refineries in northeast China and around the Bohai Bay.