The Myanmar-China natural gas pipeline started deliveries on Sunday after three years of construction, helping to diversify the country's energy import channels.

The 793-kilometer pipeline starts at Kyaukpyu on Myanmar's western coast and enters southwestern China at Ruili in Yunnan province.

The owner of the pipeline, PetroChina, said a parallel oil pipeline, expected to deliver oil by the end of this year, is 94 percent complete.

Completion of both pipelines will bring 22 million metric tons of crude oil and 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually into China.

The oil pipeline will become China's fourth important import route, joining completed pipelines from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia.

At present, China's natural gas consumption accounts for 5.5 percent among its primary energy mixture, 18.4 percentage points lower than the global average level.

To cope with climate change and reduce carbon emissions, the government set a target to increase natural gas consumption to 8.3 percent of the energy mixture by 2015.