A major crude oil terminal began operating and was opened to international vessels on Friday at Qinzhou port in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

With a total investment of 1.6 billion yuan ($25 million), the newly built terminal is considered a key project of the new western land-sea corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese provincial regions and Singapore.

The 564.3-meter terminal can berth a 300,000-ton tanker and a 100,000-ton crude oil tanker at the same time — the most of the Beibu Gulf ports.

With an annual receiving and unloading capacity of 20 million tons of crude oil after the wharf expansion, Qinzhou city can fulfill demand for 10 million tons of refined oil annually by Guangxi Petrochemical, a division of China Petroleum.

It is believed that the project will not only enhance the liquid bulk cargo throughput capacity in Guangxi but also bring down transportation costs and improve national energy security.